


Not Everything Goes As Planned

by CannibalCatfish



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, I'm a shameless potty mouth, Judy is kinda dead, Judys sister, Mentions of our favourite protagonists, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2018-12-26 12:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 55,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12058671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CannibalCatfish/pseuds/CannibalCatfish
Summary: So Barry Ermineteen is just another mammal trying to make a living in Zootopia. It may not always be honest, but he never got into any trouble. Until Carrie Hopps confronts and drags him on a wild goose chase. Whether it be to avenge her sisters death, or in the name of justice- its bound to be interesting.





	1. Bad Things Happen To Mammals

Noise drifted in through the partially open door. Loud, inconsiderate noise that crept into my room, made its way up my bed and crawled into my ears with the sole purpose to bounce around in my head and wake me up miserably.

Becky was doing the dishes.

God she was loud...

"Ugghhh..." I pulled at my ears, trying to block out the sound. "Jesus, Becky."

After a several seconds and a drawn out sigh, I trashed the idea of falling asleep again and sat up, immediately regretting the quick movement. Blood rushed out of my brain, or was it into my brain? Could never tell. The dizziness soon subsided, allowing me to begin the day. Not something I felt I was up for though. I rubbed the dust from my eyes. How long was I even asleep? I turned my head to the small digital clock on my bedside table which read one in the afternoon.

Maybe I should stay in bed, enough of the day has been wasted for it not to really matter anymore. Before I could convince myself any further I quickly stood up, bringing another bout of dizziness.

I felt a headache coming on.

I stumbled across my cluttered floor into the bathroom. After shocking myself awake with some cold water I made my way to my door, stumbling once again, then down the stairs to the kitchen where the sound of dishes could still be heard.

I stepped into the kitchen, the bright light which shone in through the large window facing the street blinded me, making my headache worse. I allowed my eyes to adjust before surveying the scene.

The kitchen was probably the smallest room in the house, my bathroom felt bigger on occasion. The house was old, meaning everything inside it was just as old, besides its occupants. The plastic and plywood table that stood in the middle of the room was there for as long as I could remember, bought off an old rhino's garage sale, meaning the thing took up most of the kitchen, making it appear smaller than it felt. The walls were stained with years of grease and steam, tinting the lemon yellow paint grey. The only window faced the street, large enough for a good deal of sunlight to shine in and effectively illuminate everything but small enough not to be easily seen through.

My claws clicked against the tiled floor, pausing as I carefully skirted a puddle of unknown clear liquid that has pooled beside the threshold. I wasn't going to ask.  
I pulled out a chair, warm brown coloured wooden seats that contrasted the cream coloured plastic top of the table. The height difference between the chairs and table wasn't noticeable, until I sat down at least. I was barely able to see over the top of the aluminium skirting of the table when seated, most of the time I stood, but I was still too groggy to care.

"How was your coma?" Becky turned her head slightly to be heard over her shoulder.

"Didn't last long enough." I gruffly replied after locating her in the far right side of the kitchen, sleepiness still evident on my voice.

"Not like you to sleep in this late, I was actually thinking about waking you."

I only hummed a response. Taking a step back from the sink and shaking her claws out over the soapy water, she turned and smiled. I frowned in response.

"You hungry?"

"Nah, left my bed just to see if you'd ask."

She scoffed and turned toward the cupboards on the furthest edge of the kitchen, next to the overflowing bin. Should probably take care of that.

"Watch it Barry, wouldn't wanna kill my good mood."

"I'm not hearing the sound of my breakfast being made." I cooed, deciding to finally stand up in my chair.

She smirked and strolled over to the nearest cupboard. Upon opening it, her smirk turned to a pout.

"We're outta cereal," She stated simply before looking back at me.  
"Looks like you're skipping breakfast."

I sighed. I was starving. After getting home late last night with nothing in my stomach besides half a packet of potato chips I bummed off of Kyle, I thought I'd get a hearty bowl of Corn Paws the next morning— afternoon. Now hearing there was no cereal, I felt even more empty. Becky looked at me decidedly.

"Put some pants on and head out to the Rendezvous, I'll give you a couple of notes."

I sighed louder this time, I didn't want to go outside and be productive in any sort of way today. Much less anything that involved socializing. Especially not something that involved pants. Reluctantly, I hopped off the chair and sauntered lazily over to the staircase. I didn't avoid the puddle of liquid this time. With a yelp and a hop away, I glared at Becky for an explanation. She shrugged in response.

"Fridge is leaking again."

I looked at the fridge, the off-white machine was probably older than both of us combined. It came from Becky's mother and still had all those multicoloured magnetic letters I used to fiddle with, but years of use had worn it down and every so often it would defrost and expel all its water. The thing was the size of a truck and made just as much noise, but it refused to die; to my dismay. I gritted my teeth and stomped up the steps, shaking my paw off all the while.

"Get Hector to fix the fucking thing!" I growled as I neared the top of the staircase.

"No ways!", I heard Becky call back, " I still owe him 20 bucks."

I closed the door to my abode. The room was bigger than it feeled, mostly due to the fact my possessions where littered in disarray around the floor and bed. I kicked a couple of articles of clothing out the way as I made for my window. In one quick movement, I opened the curtains and light flooded into the room, temporarily blinding me again.

The next couple of minutes involved me picking up shirts and pants from the floor and sniffing at them. Soon I found a top that smelled quite fresh and quickly threw it over my head.  
It didn't take long to find a pair of jeans that didn't look too creased.

I found myself standing in front of the mirror. Dust had gathered on its surface thanks to my not-so-often cleaning sprees, which usually just involved me throwing clothes into the washer and vacuuming half the room. I stared at my reflection. My ears began drooping along with my indifferent gaze. I found myself frowning.

Nice..."

I roll my shoulders and make for my door. The house was made for mammals a little smaller than sheep. This allowed me to reach things easily and, most importantly, without help. Especially without Becky's help.

Becky did however have some trouble. She would constantly bump her head into door frames and knock over furniture. She was short for a wolverine but she was stocky as hell, her arms especially. That was her sore point, femininity. Mammals sometimes referred to her as 'he' or 'him' at a glance. She hated it, but never complained about. More than what I could claim, all I did was whine.

I looked around the kitchen after stepping back down the stairs, now dressed in a plain red t-shirt with blue tinged jeans, which seemed to becoming a little tight. I made a note to start working out again.  
Becky had resumed doing the dishes, her attention drawn to a specific glass that wouldn't get clean. I saw the money lying in a small pile on the side of the table and grabbed it.

"Bring back some milk too, I think the fridge might of ruined it."

I grunted in affirmation as I walked into the hallway.

"And if you see Vince, tell him to come around at three." She called out after I opened the door.

I frowned. Why would she possibly want Vince around here again? I voiced my concern.

"The fuck you want him here for?"

I didn't like him, he was an asshole. Last time he was over he said some regrettably inappropriate things to Becky, making me kick him out. It wasn't so much me kicking him as it was me just yelling at him to 'get the outta here before I do something I regret!'. Becky told me I was threatening as hell, I didn't believe her.

Becky and him were friends, but after his outburst I was less sure. Until now.

"None of your business. Just tell him to be here."  
My scowl deepened. Whatever– she'll have to deal with him.

I closed the door behind me, taking a step out onto the concrete path leading to the front gate. The sound of kits playing out in the street filled my ears and made me smile. Their game of soccer was a normal event in the street that kept them out of trouble and was only interrupted by the occasional car. The sidewalks were littered with several pedestrians, taking their time strolling through the warm sun that shone down on everything. The sky was bright and devoid of clouds, letting the suburb get full view of the endless blue. It was peaceful as always. Out here on Dark Dirt street, it was always peaceful. I took a deep breath of the crisp morning— afternoon air.

And God was it terrible. The small breeze that just barely tickled my fur brought the smell of something burning. I looked around again, noticing everyone was still calm and relaxed.

I looked up and surveyed the sky, eventually finding what I was looking for. Not far above the apartment complex to the far left of the patio and a few streets down was a trail of blackish smoke that lazily drifted with the breeze. I missed it on my first look into the sky, but it stuck out now. I followed it to its source, where it quickly disappeared behind houses in the distance. In the direction of the local dump. That wasn't right though, they only burned trash on Mondays, today was Saturday. Zootopia usually disposed of its rubbish by shipping it out of city, but it couldn't always afford to take all of it, which made sense on account of maintaining the transit system and the climate wall. The remainder left was usually organic refuge and other easy to burn substances. They got most of it all into one spot in each district and burned it in an incinerator. Unfortunately that meant smoke.  
I walked quickly to the gate and scampered over it, too lazy to open the latch.

"Barry!" I winced at the voice. Looking passed the rowdy kits on the street to see an elderly cougar with her paw lifted in greeting. My eyes narrowed as I watched her hobble across the tar toward me.

"So good to see you, Barry!" She exclaimed excitedly once she got closer.

"Unbelievably so." I responded.

She was well known to all the mammals who lived in the street. The old cougar, Beatriz, had been around since anyone could remember, basically as old as the suburb.

Beatriz was infamous for making a good batch of muffins, and talking your ear off whenever you accepted one, sometimes she didn't even wait for you to accept. She was strangely up to date on everything that happened in the city, considering all she did was bake and sit on a lawn chair reading cheap romance novels.

"We've been wondering where you've been this last week." She peered down at me, almost hunching herself over to get closer. The 'we've' was probably only her.  
I began leaning back, appreciating the distance between us.

"Been kinda busy with... stuff," I replied, "Y'know, with what happened at work."

She nodded quickly, and was about to open her maw again.

"Do you know why they're burning trash earlier?" I interjected, trying to point the conversation in a useful direction.

She seemed confused at first before following my gaze toward the trail of smog.

"Oh yes! Dante told me when he came around yesterday, sweet boy's been busy with all his work there at the heap."

Dante was her neighbour's son who worked at the dump as a trash collector. He came around often to see Beatriz- God knew why.

"The city's been keeping them real busy with all the extra garbage he's had to pick up. They're burning it all now you see," she pointed in the direction of the dump, "they're almost too full to take anymore."

This was news to me. This only ever happened when the city had its big Christmas celebration, tons of garbage would be left out for the next week to be taken care of, much of it burned. The few days after Christmas was the worst, the wind always ended up blowing the smog in our direction, covering the suburb in a haze. But now, on a bright sunny Saturday, I have to breathe noxious fumes. Living the dream of Downtown.

"Poor boy, works so hard but never gets any appreciation. And now what with the city cutting most of their end of the month checks, its going to be quite difficult for the next four months or so."

This I had heard about. They were docking some the city's worker's paychecks by nearly a third. Most were street sweepers, many of the attendants and receptionists that work in city owned building and of course- trash collectors. Made me glad I wasn't working for government. The story was never clearcut either. There was never an official statement for the cut in pay, it was all by word of mouth. And mammals could really blow things out of proportion.

"I hear its only temporary though." I comment.

Beatriz shakes her head and shrugs.  
"With this city, I never know. Are you on your way to the Rendezvous?"

I nodded.  
"Would you care to get me some sugar? The kits are coming over tomorrow and I'd like to be prepared!"

Her pitch raised lovingly at the mention of her grandcubs. She was a grandmother at heart, and treated them with the utmost love. I could care less about the annoying brats. More than once she walked down to the Rendezvous, the crazy monsters left a trail of destruction behind them, annoying adults and other young alike. My bad experience involved them asking me play, and pushing me around after refusing. Becky arrived to get them off my tail, after scolding them and explaining that I was indeed a grown stoat and not some stubborn kit, they reckoned it funny that someone as intimidating as her had such a feminine voice. Becky had a general distaste for the cubs after that.

"Yea, sure.", I replied.  
After handing over the cash, bidding farewell, she hobbled down the road, talking about how grown up her grandcubs were becoming, I sighed and pocketed the green in my back pocket. Hopefully this wouldn't be a long day. My headache flared up to disagree with me.

The walk down the street wasn't completely relaxing. I kept glancing upwards at the heavy cloud of darkness that now floated just above the church's spire a couple blocks down. I knew it shouldn't have bothered me but it filled me with a sense of uneasiness. That and the glares I got from the O'Malley household nearing the end of Dark Dirt. A group of four llamas stopped their discussion and pierced my back with their gazes.

It happened when the O'Malleys first moved in a year and half back. In passing their home they tried to make friendly with me, Becky insists they meant well but fuck it–  
their condescending tones were asking to be put in place.

I said a few things that I still don't regret and ended up helpless in the air, dangling by my hoodie in the hooves of a pretty pissed of Derek, the biggest brother of the llamas. Luckily for me, Mister Turner across the road, a middle aged billy goat who owned a liquor store stepped out and made his presence known. The llama brothers thought it would be wise to let me go on my way. They haven't tried anything since then, but every time I pass I feel their eyes follow me. Occasionally they throw comments in my direction, attempting to get rise out of me. Most of the time I ignore them, not wanting to find myself in a similar situation as before, without the help of Mister Turner who knows how badly it could have turned.

This time was no different. The oldest, Derek, sat on his front steps and glared daggers. The twins, I didn't know who was who (I think the one's name was Pinter), sat at one side beside one another. The youngest sat on the other side, a look of indifference on his ugly face, I didn't know his name. And I probably wouldn't find out. I stole one last glance in their direction, being sure to look nonchalant, and continued on my way.

The uneasiness returned after stealing another look into the sky. It wasn't a major change in the city's routine, but a change it was. Change usually led to unrest, which was never something pleasant to deal with. Especially with the many thousands of mammals in Zootopia.

I rounded the corner of Dark Dirt, officially leaving the street. The hustle and bustle was loud upon entering Lily avenue. A wide street that was a normal route for mammals traveling from Downtown to Sahara Square on their way to work. Even during the weekend the street would be perpetually busy.

Crossing it was nearly impossible during peak hour. The traffic now was moderate. Many of the mammals riding down Lily now would probably be heading out for some fun later tonight. It was a Saturday after all.

I strolled down the sidewalk, paws in pockets, feeling the breeze brush against my whiskers. The sunshine beat down on my fur, making me significantly warmer. It was a good Saturday, not as horrible as I imagined. Ignoring the smoke made it better. Maybe I could drop by Kyle's later. Haven't seen him in at least two days.

I rounded another corner where the hustle of Lily avenue was soon left behind. I entered the Rendezvous. This place was the best. A small dead end road surrounded by houses-turned-stores. You could buy anything you wanted here, and mammals did. I often saw preds walk out with whole fish.  
Whole fish in this part of town was difficult to find outside restaurants, but not at the Rendezvous, here we could buy anything at an affordable price, most of the time. I often spent my cash on the mini-market that catered to all mammals. When you got stores like that, there were bound to be a variety of mammals hanging around. Which meant diversity. This place was a common ground, where preds and prey hung out and just.. existed.

I stepped further into the road and passed by several stores, mammals moving in and out of each of them. The rounded end of the road was crowded by pedestrians that spoke in loud voices, the occasional laugh split the din of noise. Mammals were packed on either side, either shopping or hanging around and chatting, sometimes just sitting back and relaxing.

This place was a relatively safe haven. It was crowded but always had a spot to sit at. Always at least one happy drunk mammal slurring a joke in the corner. Always a kit or cub moving about, sometimes shopping, sometimes just wasting their time leisurely.

Everyone had mutual respect for one another here, I'm sure that's more thanks to the shopkeepers possession of shotguns, but that didn't matter. Mammals were kind, they were upstanding citizens that treated each other with sincerity and compassion, where everyone got along and everything was peachy. Where the lines between friend and foe was nonexistent. Where no speciest remarks were made.

"Hey antlers!" I called out at the moose ahead of me. I walked up slowly to Vince, who was busy chatting with a antelope I didn't recognize. He turned quickly with a hard look on his face, glancing to the left and right for who called. I stared expectantly for him to look down, feeling my blood begin to churn in moderate frustration. He eventually did glance downward and saw me, his annoyed expression quickly turned into slight amusement.

"Oh hey there, short stuff. Didn't see you there."

I forced a smirk, I wasn't going to let him get to me. For now, at least.

"Ah, you know us short guys– used to it by now." I shrugged, replacing my smirk with a more genuine grin.  
"Anyways- just wanted to tell you that Becky wants you around at six."

He narrowed his eyes and leaned down, hands on his knees. I felt my anger growing at the sight.  
"So what, you're like her messenger now?"

I shrugged again, putting on a helpless facade.  
"You ever try saying no to her?"

"Well," he continued, "tell her I can't wait." His mouth split open into a toothy grin. I felt myself lean back from his breath, not risking breathing in any of it.

"She'll be waiting on you." I say over my shoulder as I walk over to the mini-market, snickering all the while. Becky wouldn't be too pleased with waiting those extra three hours. Better make myself scarce.

I bought a extra large box of Corn Paws, a carton of coconut milk, a packet of sugar and I had enough to buy a pack of cigarettes. Becky didn't like me smoking but I reasoned it was better than drinking. She knew I couldn't handle my alcohol, being a lightweight and all... kind of a sorepoint for me.

I slapped the cash on the counter and walked out, a packet of goods in my paws, a little big and heavy but manageable. Now all I needed to do was deliver the groceries and find Kyle. Kyle wasn't always difficult to find. He usually just sat around outside his place, staring at mammals who walked by. He was a real dick sometimes, but could the guy command a crowd. That's actually how we met, he was on his corner, about two blocks from Dark Dirt, just standing on his little podium doing magic tricks. He did it every so often and I was lucky enough to catch him, this lanky antelope standing tall with a couple of cards in his hooves, surrounded by a crowd of eager mammals. He had them wrapped around his finger.

So I walked up to the crowd and see him doing all these tricks, just the usual stuff where he would ask someone to pick a card or pull some cloth out his mouth. But his finale was what stood out. He picked up the tip hat he had in the front of his podium and pulled a rabbit out of it (turns out the buck's name was Leonard, who fucking knew).

Course, the crowd went nuts and threw more money at him. I was impressed, especially after seeing a raccoon run up to him and drop some cash into his hoof. He got the raccoon to steal from the audience while they were busy watching. It was ingenious.

So I approached him and told him what I did. He wasn't super impressed but he gave me a chance. Next time he had his little magic show, I was put on stealing duty, oh boy did I deliver. The shock on his face was a sight to witness. He got me in on the deal immediately. At the end of every session we would put the money that was willingly given and the money not-so-willingly given. We'd split it down the middle, which was more than a fair deal.

Today was turning out better than expected. I smiled as I strolled up Dark Dirt street, ignoring the glares of the llama brothers, ignoring the noxious air, ignoring the fact that I would have to take this sugar to a chatty cougar. I did it with a small spring in my step.

The giddiness in my system had no real reasoning to exist, but I wasn't going to question my disposition.

I walked through the front door, feeling the coldness of the hall under my paws. I dropped the packet of groceries on the kitchen table and took a deep breath before smiling triumphantly.

"Barry, come look at this!"  
Becky's voice came from the lounge. My smile faltered, my mood wavered. She sounded upset. I walked briskly through the hall into the open lounge, feeling the temperature drop as I went. This room was easily the biggest in the house, although made for small mammals, it housed Becky quite well. It didn't take sunlight so well, making it cold most of the time.

I found her on the couch, (got the thing from the same old rhino) not sprawled out like she usually was. She sat upright, staring intently over at the box TV a couple of feet away from the couch. The volume was relatively low but I could make out the picture of a news broadcast. Becky's usually calm, sometimes jovial, expression was replaced by something I could only recognize as shock. She was tense, wound up like a spring. I didn't say anything, instead I walked over and looked closer at the screen.

The picture were of two anchors, the familiar moose and snow leopard -I remembered the moose's name was Peter- their expressions as ramrod as ever.  
At the bottom of the screen showed a large 'BREAKING NEWS'.  
Just beside that, the red panel scrolled lazily, birthing words that never held any good message. Any news that was breaking was usually never good.

'Police officer left dead after savage mauling'

"Mauling." The word left a bitter taste in my mouth that no amount of swallowing would alleviate. Another mauling, I thought they had eased up.  
Becky looked over to me, her expression forlorn.  
"The bunny cop." She stated blandly.

My eyes shot back to the screen. There it was. A picture of the bunny cop who had our former mayor put in prison.

The same one who defied all belief of her abilities and persevered. The small picture was of her in her uniform, freshly graduated by the looks of it. Pride and happiness radiated off of her smile, her eyes filled with the same determination I saw in her interview. She had the look of happy, hopeful energy. She seemed so excited. So happy.

The first bunny cop in Zootopia was dead in her third month of duty...

-and she was mauled.

'"Oh, that's just great..."


	2. When Things Seem Bleak, They Usually Are

"Wilde?"

Kyle's expression was disbelieving.

"There's no fucking way he went savage."

"That's not what the chief of fucking police is saying!" I growl in reply, slightly peeved by his tone.

Kyle sat in front of me on his patio steps, his face still surprised and his hoofs running over his horns. I came straight over to his place after the news concluded an interview with Chief Bogo was set to take place in the morning. He was stopped outside the crime scene, a museum of all places, by a couple of reporters and only commented on who the savagery.

"Its not like Wilde— it just don't make sense", Kyle's eyes focused on a point in space in front of him, he clung to his cigarette fiercely.

"How do you know this guy anyways?", my curiosity got the better of me. He took a while to answer.

"I didn't know him personally, probably met him once, can't remember. Guy was as smooth as peanut butter. He got a lot of his cash from having this whole thing with selling pawpsicles. It don't make sense that he'd maul a cop."

I stayed silent. I didn't know why a hustling fox ended up going savage and killing an officer. This whole savage thing was just a insane in itself. I never believed predators could go savage at any time, any place. I didn't believe what Hopps said at that press interview after finding the savages. It was crap, how was a specific group of animals predisposed to random violence and insanity. I never believed any of this could get so close to home.  
Until now at least.

Now I was filled with fear. It nibbled at my mind. I wasn't scared, I was terrified. Terrified of this seemingly random mind-altering state that didn't discriminate who it chose, if you were next, then tough. No, it did discriminate. Only predators went mad and started attacking mammals. Only the small ten percent of Zootopia got turned into feral beasts and hurt those around them. Killed those around them now.

Kyle didn't buy what they said about predators going savage either. He thought the afflicted were on some bad trip thanks to potent drugs. I remember saying it could be the food. But now he saw it, we both did, after hearing somebody he knew lashed out and killed a cop he was rethinking his stance.  
I took a long drag of my cigarette.

"What happened?" I asked myself silently, trying to make sense of the madness our televisions were now spewing.

"Dude, you know what this means right?" Kyles voice was strained, he also seemed as scared as me. "The police are gonna go and talk this out."

"..Yeah?" I shrugged. "Makes sense."

"Nah! Listen! How long have these attacks been happening?"

"Jesus man— I donno. Like... three weeks?"

"Nah— couldn't have been. They've been happening since before the bunny cop found those missing mammals. That's what made them go missing."

I pondered his point. He was right, according to the press interview after Lionheart was put away, the missing mammals themselves were savage. So there's been savage cases for at least a month, probably more.

"They're gonna try and figure it out, control it, Barry," Kyle said solemnly, "but they can't control something that jumps around randomly."

My brow knotted and I opened my mouth to respond, only finding nothing to say. I gather my thoughts.

"Wh-what're you saying? They're gonna watch preds or something? Keep an eye on us?"

"I don't even know. There's like— a lot of preds out here..."

Kyle dropped his head in defeat. He knew that this wasn't going to end well.

"This city's going to shit, man. Everyone is freaking out and now cops are dying."

I swallowed his words slowly. It really was getting worse. Everything was supposed to get better after a predator was chosen as mayor, he was the first in nearly twenty years. It was supposed to be the big break for predators. But predators were being targeted by some random force of nature. We were reverting.

I felt my hope fade along with Kyles. Preds were going to be feared again. We were going to be hated by more than eighty percent of the city just because of our potential to turn nuts. We were always treated with caution, now we were going to be hair-pin triggers to them. I wanted to cry, to shout and scream and punch things because the world was unfair and cruel. But I just stood there.

A stoat standing beside an antelope. Both of us feeling the effects of the savagery that plagued the city.  
Now that I knew the savage animals were really real, that they were actually reverting to primal instincts, I knew the full extent of trouble we could all be in. It all depended on the police at their conference tomorrow. They held the power to turn the city against preds, or try and help them. I hoped it was the latter.

"What do you think they'll say tomorrow?"

"I dunno, man. Gotta hope its good, for all our sakes."

I nodded in agreement. We fell into silence again. Kyle's smoke never left his mouth and I was too sick to continue mine. I flicked it away in the direction of the street gutter, watching it bounce twice before stilling and eventually dying.

"Look Kyle, if you find out anything new- could you?..."

"Yea, yeah! Sure man, I'll keep an ear out."

"Thanks, I'm just- fuck!" I kicked a stone, "Why must this happen now! When everything was actually going alright!"

Kyle watched on as I kicked anything I could get hold of. He didn't seem surprised, he almost expected me to throw a tantrum. Was I that predictable? Did everyone expect ne to freak out when something bad happened? Did Becky also expect me to breakdown and kick things. She never did, she always kept her head up. I felt stupid.

I continued though, eventually stopping when I kicked up a piece of his grass. I groaned through my teeth and looked skyward, attempting to calm my nerves with the ever present sky, the only thing that seemed to stay constant in this shifting city. Instead I caught sight of the smoke trailing from the heap that still burned and felt my temper rise again. Yet another reminder that change was everywhere! And none of it was good.

"How's Becky handling it?"

I was thankful for the change in subject. Kyle wasn't always good with social cues.

"She wasn't happy about the... whole killing thing. Like— I mean, this savage thing was just crap on the news a couple days ago, and now... someone got killed."

I looked over at Kyle, trying to glean his reaction. His expression was pensive. He was strangely calm through recent events. Although, I could chalk that up to me freaking out at every turn. But he wasn't a predator, he wasn't the targeted minority here, he had no reason to break a sweat.

"She's still on the couch, waiting for anything new to come up. I'm kinda worried about her. Y'know— cause she was all pro-pred-prey relations and all that. Seeing that we're killing each other again, she probably feels like all that effort she puts in to make the city better is for moot."

I shook my head. Becky wouldn't approve of my pity but I felt sorry for her.

"Maybe that's what she needs. Maybe- its just- like, she got to see the side of Zootopia that the motto hides y'know?" He took another long drag of his cigarette, only to realize only the filter was left. He flicked it away unceremoniously. After offering him a new one and a light he continued.  
"Jesus, man. I dunno what's happening to preds, but if it keeps up... those squatters at city hall are gonna be hella desperate to do something. I just hope it's something that isn't completely dumb."

"What makes you think its gonna be bad?"  
He took along drag of his new cigarette and leaned closer. A smile was playing at his mouth.

"Name one good thing that's come out of those mammals in suits over in Savannah Central?"

"Noted."  
His smile was contagious.

* * *

After my moderately morbid chat with Kyle I decided to head back to the house. We agreed not to do any work today, it would be risky getting on the bad side of mammals, both of us weren't in the mood anyway. I stepped in through the house, barely registering the now empty street. The hallway was just as cold as it was before, but before I left I was on cloud nine. Oh no! Nothing could bring this mustelid down! Now all I felt was apprehension. Dread if I dwelled too long.

"B?" I shouted into the house. No answer.

Wait, there. My stubby ears tilted to the noise. She was in her room down the hall. Figures, I wanted to get away from the TV too. I walked carefully down to the wooden door. Scratches marred the wood around the handle where Becky would try and fail to open it up. I often told her to get her claws shortened but she was way too proud of them. I listened again. Yes, it was her. I knocked gently. No reply.

"B." My voice was weak.

A couple of sniffles later and she answered.

"Yeah?"

I thought for a moment.

"You okay?"

Good job dumbass. Couldn't have picked anything more idiotic to say!

"N-no." Her reply come quickly. Her voice was strained. She'd been crying... a lot. Guilt riddled painfully. I left when she needed that emotional support she always provided. Could I not once give it back at the right time?

"You— wanna... talk about it?" I offered. Jesus, I really was bad at this.

She didn't respond. Instead I felt the door give way. I looked up and there she stood, taking up most of the frame. A hulking wolverine, that was tough and funny and kind, and sad. Her muzzle was stained wet and the smell of salt was distinct. She sniffled once before throwing a paw out and grabbing me. I was hauled into the bedroom and pulled into a tight embrace. Too tight.

She began bawling again and she hugged me. I gasped and sputtered as the air left my lungs. I didn't struggle though, she was too distraught to care anyway. I hung limply from her arms until the need for air became too great. I started pounding on her arms, trying to get the message across.

Her grip loosened and I sucked in an much air as I could muster. The sudden influx of oxygen made my head woozy and my eyes flashed black and red. She kept me in her embrace though, albeit much more gentler now. Did she need this that badly? I knew she disliked the hate that passed between species these last few weeks, she voiced it often. But, she never cried or broke down. She must have been hiding it. Guilt returned. I left her to it, just so I could clear my head over at Kyles. She didn't have anyone nearby to share this anguish with. I was selfish. If she needed this, then I'd give her as much of it as I could.

We stayed that like for a while, could of been for an hour for all I knew. My paws snaked their way up and around her thick neck to join in the embrace. After several more moments Becky broke the silence.

"I'm scared."

"...that's understandable." My voice was slightly muffled by her shirt.

"...just— do me a favour, Barry."

"S'long as you don't crush me again."

Her laugh was nervous but genuine. I felt that bubbly elation rise in my gut. We both laughed for several moments before she looked down at me. The wave of nostalgia hit me hard.

"You look like your mom sometimes."

Her smile faltered before returning to it's fullest.

"Hey, no changing the subject," her expression turned serious, " I want you to promise me not to do anything dumb for a while, at least not until this savage thing is over."

"I can't promise not to be an idiot. It's ingrained in me."

"No! I'm being serious, Barry. You got to stop doing your stuff with Kyle for a while, who knows what Bogo's gonna say tomorrow. I just don't want you to get into trouble or anything."

Her voice was sincere. Too sincere.

"I'll try, but y'know time's not gonna make things like it was."

"Doesn't matter," she stared down on me, intent on getting the point across, "promise me."

"Barry?"

"Kay! Yeah- yeah I promise I won't do anything dumb."

Her grip tightened as she pulled me closer. We stayed like that for a while before I interjected with a loud 'ahem'. She got the message and begun releasing me.

"Love you lil' bro."

"Yea, suppose I got to love you too." I slide out from under her arms and land soundly on the carpet. She watched as I left the room, catching me glance back once with a reassuring smile.

Soon as I left earshot I sighed. She was always trying to keep me safe. It was frustrating how she would go out of her way for me sometimes, mainly because I couldn't do the same. In situations like this especially. I wasn't there for her when she needed me, I was always late, tending to myself first. She must have felt like an afterthought. I trudged up the steps of the staircase, intending to have a shower to think things through.

I threw off all my clothes and hopped in, quickly soaking in the warmth of the water. Why couldn't things ever stay according to _plan?_  
 _-What_ was your plan anyway, kid?-  
A voice made itself known in my head, attached to an elderly weasel that had his finger weaving around his disproportionate moustache.

'I dunno, guess I didn't think that far.'

-Course you didn't. Why on earth would you when you're so complacent to live in the present, which is going to shit by the way. No, just continue living, the details will sort themselves out later.-

'Aren't you supposed to be giving me advice or something?'

-If you want good advice you should ask someone who isn't in your head.-

'Oh... Right.'

-You want some _standard_ though? When your original plan doesn't work out.. improvise. Zootopia has a lotta bad mammals in it, bucko. Better start learning.-

"What is wrong with me?" I said aloud, trying to brush away the image of the old weasel.

After spending too much time in the shower I eventually stepped out to shake myself off. After towelling down my wet fur I threw on my old clothes again and went down to the kitchen to grab something to eat. It was nearing five pm. Looks like it was gonna be an early night.

Opening the fridge, I found the carton of milk I bought not too long ago and dropped it on the table. Maneuvering around the room, got ahold of all the items and ingredients needed. I hadn't eaten all day, and that cigarette I had made me ill. I was going to have the most amazing breakfast-  
-dinner.

I lifted the finished product. A large bowl (by my standards, Becky could gulp the thing down in two mouthfuls) of Corn Paws, a generous helping of sugar laying above the floating paws. This was going to be enjoyable. I lifted the spoon to my open maw, ready to take the first-

"Barry!"

I paused and answered awkwardly through my open mouth.

"Yah?"

"Why do we have extra sugar?"

Oh shit, I didn't give it to Beatriz. When I got back I got so caught up in the news I neglected the importance of groceries, I even forgot I was hungry. I look to the counter and found the packet. My eyes moved over to the clock.

'5:06 pm'

I dropped the bowl back on the table and grumbled. After grabbing the packet and shouting farewell I walked out the front door. The sun was still up but was entering its first stages of setting. I appreciated the glow it left in the sky. What I appreciated more was the lack of smoke trail in the air, they had stopped burning trash.

I take in a breath. Yep, the aftertaste of smoke was still there, but the air was much cleaner. I strolled out onto the street, accepting that whether I hurry or don't I'll come back to soggy cereal. There were no kits out now, nearly no pedestrians walked along Dark Dirt now. Just as the kits were probably watching afternoon cartoons, the older inhabitants were probably cooking up dinner.

Or stressing over the latest development in the savage cases. My lighthearted mood seemed to take a drop. No, these are feelings for tomorrow morning. I should be content now, with everything, even the imminent conversation I'm bound to have with Beatriz. Her lawn chair lay empty, she was inside baking. Hopefully I didn't keep her too long.

I took a deep breath and knocked three times. Things were quiet for a moment. Then I heard her aged voice come from afar.

"I'm coming!"

It was good she voiced herself, otherwise I would have knocked again. She took a while to open the door. I wasn't the mammal she was expecting.

"Thank the dear Lord above, I was so-"

Her eyes widened in surprise. She glanced around, completely unaware of my presence.

"Ahem!"

"Oh!" Beatriz looked down quickly, "I didn't see you there, dear."

I decided to hold back on any rude comments and instead address why I was there. I lifted the packet as high as I could, which reached her hip.

"Your stuff, I kinda got held up."

Her eyes brightened and a smile creeped onto her face. She took the package carefully.

"Thank you very much, Barry. I wasn't planning on making anything tonight anyway."

I nodded, content I had fulfilled my duty as a good neighbour for the day and turned to leave.

"Its just been so chaotic down in Savannah you know. Dante called me not so long ago and I've been fretting ever since."  
Beatriz stared above my head, a sad look of empathy on her face. She locked eyes with me, waiting. I signed softly.

"Something happening at the dump?"

She seemed pleased I asked and continued quickly.

"First they cut their salaries, then they made them work over the weekend and now... it seems they are having some trouble regarding the leadership in Zootopia." The last part was said in a hushed whisper.

"Our leadership? You mean Lionheart?"  
My interest was slightly piqued.

"I mean our current leadership." The hush hadn't left her voice.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Bellwether?"

"No, no she's outing the the sorry miscreants. It's our politicians at city hall. They were found supporting and actively trying to achieve-" her voice took a dramatic turn and she bent down on her crooked back to whisper. I found myself leaning upward, standing on my toes to hear her clearly.

She glanced around once more before quickly blurting out: "Predator supremacy."

I fell back on the flats of my paws and took a step back. This should have been expected. I should have expected this. Believing mammals would stop at accusing predators of being violent by nature was asking too much.

Conspiracy. First savages make us predators look more dangerous than what prey already thought and now politicians are being caught after the mauling kills a celebrity.

"Predatory supremacy." I stated simply as I stared up at Beatriz. Her eyes were still wide, almost as if she couldn't comprehend what she had just said. She nodded swiftly.

"Yes, three have been found with incriminating evidence and have so far plead not guilty."

She memorised that. She had to have read that somewhere, heard it, seen it.  
The news will jump on this story like a fly on a piece of shit. They would be replaying the news of 'Zootopia's first rabbit officer— dead!'  
for the next week, month, fuck it!— maybe even for the next year.

The news would play interviews with her mother and father, siblings, other officers and members of society who had grown to know and love the fuzzy cop. She might have been mauled, but she will never die, Zootopia would make sure of that. She was a martyr.

"Dante explained that one of his bosses, a jaguar as far as I remember, had been giving out extra money to predators and neglecting the prey employees."

"Wow." Was all I could say.

This was strange, more than strange. The city had taken a wild turn, too quickly for us to shrug off. The plot behind the missing mammals was broken open by a rookie rabbit officer. The same officer put our old mayor behind bars and exposed the savages to Zootopia, before going on to isolate predators and blame the random violence that had broken out on predators ancient instincts. Then _bam,_ bunny cop is killed by a savage predator and a regime for predator supremacy is uncovered in the important people of city hall. Things weren't looking up for the minority.

"Dante is worried about what will happen to his colleagues now that they've been exposed."

"At least some prey are worried about us." I grumbled.

Beatriz continued as if she heard nothing.  
"Maxine phoned not too long ago,"

Maxine was Beatriz's daughter-in-law, a young cougar I had met once, about as charming as her cubs.

"She told me she couldn't get to us through the crowds. So I forfeited the baking for tonight, my babies won't be coming over." Her voice was laced with disappointment, but I was more interested in what the former meant.

"The crowds?"

She blinked in confusion, then quickly frowned.

"They're having a protest out on Lily avenue. Quite a ways up, that's why we can't hear any of it."

Another one, and this close. There were a few protests over the last couple weeks. Many were crackpot prey who hated preds. They just got together at random spots around the city and shouted about how angry they were. One group even have the audacity to leave a petition involving the removing of predators from all districts, effectively kicking us out of Zootopia, on the steps of city hall. Now there was another one. And in a major route no less.

"Is it serious?" I paused, hoping it was more a gathering than a protest.  
Beatriz snorted.

"Apparently serious enough to block off a good deal of Downtown. What utter nonsense! The police have done nothing about it, which isn't-"

"Where exactly is it?" My interjection cut off her venting.

She gathered her thoughts and answered.

"Around the turn-in to Lily avenue,"

I turned and left, jogging down Dark Dirt toward Grass street.

"Do be careful, I heard they're throwing stones! The barbarians!"

Beatriz's shout was nearly lost in the wind that passed my ears. If I jogged it up to it, I may see it before dark. I'd never seen any of these protests in person.

I passed by my house, not bothering to tell Becky of the protest on progress just up the road. I passed the llama brothers house, not looking to see if they were there, glaring.

I took the corner and entered Grass street. The traffic was nonexistent. Never have I seen this street carless. It seemed unnatural, like if you decided to step onto the tar the spell would be broken and you'd be run down by a speeding motorist. There were no pedestrians around either, another worrying sign.

My moderate jog soon brought me up to the Rendezvous, there was still hustle and bustle inside the dead end, but a degree or two less than usual. Mammals on the street knew.

My lungs were beginning to burn, but I didn't stop. It took a solid five minutes before I heard any commotion. I slowed and took to a lighter trot, the blood rushing in my ears cut off some of the noise and my struggled pants didn't help. God I was unfit.

Slowing further to a walk to make my way around the bend. I noticed mammals standing around. Sparse and few at first, but the number grew quickly. The light from the horizon was failing to light everything well. I didn't see many details, but the looks of mammals who either stood around and slowly walked away from the scene shone through. They were shocked, some even looked angry. I saw a rhino crying in the arms of another.

The ground became littered with objects that cast long shadows in the dying light.  
Stones. Beatriz was right.

One of them I walked passed was half my size. The noise was loud now, very loud and very aggressive. A few stray shouts were of broken sentences that I couldn't recognize. It was a cacophony of sounds, harsh sound that made me wince.

I got closer, seeing a large group ahead of me. A _very_ large group. Mainly because it had at least a dozen elephants and rhinos in their midst. They threw their hoofs up in the air with shouts of anger. I looked around and saw smaller mammals between them, some sheep, a couple of antelope, I'm pretty sure I saw a pig.

Then I looked around and saw a substantial amount of blue. Big hulking figures in uniforms stood around the crowd. Almost equidistant apart and with stern, expressionless faces. The crowd inside the blue border swelled and moved almost like it was one organism, one being.

They threw insults, directed toward the police surrounding them. I could hear pieces of sentences being thrown around. All of them threatening. I couldn't focus on any particular mammal. All of then shouted together, all of them angry. This wasn't like the protest at Little Rodentia. This was a riot. A riot made up completely of prey.

"Only prey." I mumbled. I checked again, my eyes glancing off of each mammal. I eventually gave up. Only prey, a good variety of mammals but all of them were prey.

The crowd suddenly surged forward, nearly reaching the border of blues, who had taken out batons, ready to defend themselves. The crowd seemed to think better of it and resumed throwing hand gestures and voicing their anger.

Anger at what exactly?  
'Predator'  
I heard it. I didn't see the mammal who said it but that was fine with me. They had said it with such malice and venom it made me take a step back. This was a riot, made completely of prey who are angry with predators. Did I expect any different. I had, and I wasn't sure why.

I took another couple of steps back, suddenly feeling very vulnerable.

"Wha?-" I lost my balance and tipped backwards, crashing onto the hard tar behind me.

My arms broke most of my fall- unfortunately for them.

"The fuck?" I looked at my feet, trying to make out what tripped me. I squinted in the dimmed light. Expecting a rock, I was unpleasantly surprised to find a signboard as wide as the length of my body and as long as three of me. Half my body was still laying across it. I pulled myself off of it and up to get a better look at it, rubbing at my exposed elbows all the while.

The sunlight was pretty much gone, so making out the words were nigh impossible. I picked up one of the sides. It was homemade, flimsy plywood with words on one side and blank wood on the other. I looked for an alternative light source and found it in a street lamp that had flicked on whilst my back was turned.

The light now shone on the side I wanted to read, after some awkward swivelling. I still had to squint, but now the words were recognizable.

In large, jagged letters, the paint read:  
"TAME THE SAVAGES"

I frowned. My head slowly shook.

"What does-"

The sign dropped out of my paws and cluttered onto the ground. The crowd seemed to grow louder, the voices were more aggressive and more shouts were heard.  
This was bad.  
All of it, everything about this was horrible. This entire savage thing.

It was so real. Too real.  
Not so long ago, Kyle and I were sitting around, smoking and joking about how the savagery that was put in the papers couldn't possibly be plausible. How predators don't just "revert" to the old ways. We were confident that this savage thing would boil down to a bad batch of drugs. We assumed that the bunny cop had no idea what she was talking about.

She died, after preaching something we laughed at. I couldn't appreciate the irony, it was just too morbid. Now every mammal that doubted knows about the latest mauling, they'll soon know about the Grass street riot and then they'll know what city hall thinks of this all. Mammals were confused. And with confusion came fear, they would fear the idea savagery and everything that was attached to it. In short: predators.

We were already the minority. Already seen as dangerous in the eyes of meek prey. I would have to watch the news, see if any more riots broke out across Zootopia. I had to stay knowledgeable. That was key.

And the key to knowledge was the news. I groaned and dragged my paws across my eyes.

I left the sign laying face up under the streetlight.

* * *

"...and following the explosion in tunnel five, which was currently unused, Miss Hopps and Mister Wilde were thought to have accessed the Ancient History Museum through an entry cordoned off by safety officers more than two years ago as said tunnel was no longer in use. The explosion in the tunnel took place less than eight minutes before the mauling. Mayor Bellwether reported the event through nine-one-one after inspection of the premises, going forward with her plan of revamping the museum so that it may go back into service. Miss Hopps was declared dead on sight."

A chorus of camera shutters started up as Chief Bogo looked up from the report, staring blankly into the crowd of reporters. He took a deep breath, seemingly aware of what would happen next.

Reporters began shouting in unison. Their sentences weren't coherent as it all came out at once. They each wanted their question answered desperately, but one's voice rose above the noise. A confident female voice that turned out to belong to a civet.

"Chief Bogo! The last development on Miss Hopps was that she had resigned four weeks after exposing former mayor Lionheart's involvement with the missing mammals. Why was she back and acting under vigilantism with Mister Wilde?"

The crowd waited eagerly for the reply.  
Bogo leaned in to the microphone propped up on the short podium.

"Witnesses believe she had made new ground in understanding savage behaviour. She picked up Mister Wilde soon after arriving in Zootopia and the incident report followed."

The room exploded into more noise as reporter's voices fought to be heard. A moose eventually won.

"Mister Wilde is a known criminal, why was Miss Hopps predisposed to go to him for assistance?"

"While working on finding Emmet Otterton, Miss Hopps had made contact with him as a key witness to the case. He subsequently assisted her in finding the Cliffside Asylum and the remaining missing mammals."

A beaver shoved their way forwards and threw up her arm to be noticed.

"Chief Bogo! With regards to the mauling, will Nicholas Wilde be tried with murder? If not, what will happen to him now?"

"Mister Wilde has yet to come out of his state. The case is being looked into by the judicial law as we speak."

A grizzly bear shouted quickly before the noise could kick up again.

"What about Miss Hopps' interview after the missing mammals were found? Does what she say have any more relevance?"

"Our best forensics teams are regarding every possibility."

The cacophony of noise broke out again. Reporters basically falling over one another to be heard.  
Bogo blinked slowly. He looked tired.

"Is there a any reason to doubt that this phenomenon of savagery could become a normal occurrence?"

The crowd held its breath, everyone leaned closer with their recorders and mics to hear the response. The silence was deafening.  
Bogo leaned forward, purposefully drawing the moment out and filling it with suspense. His lips parted as he began.

"No comment."

The reporters were in a frenzy, scribbling down notes and shouting out more questions. Bogo quickly informed the crowd that no more questions would be answered and that the conference was over. He sauntered off the stage, huffing all the while.

The look on his face stayed with me. It wasn't often you saw it on a large mammal like Bogo. It wasn't an expression I'd ever forget and its one I've actually been seeing a lot of lately. Fear.

When that bear spoke up and had his turn, Bogo's eyes filled with fear. He must have been dreading that question. But why?  
Did it make him scared to know that this might not end and that predators will all eventually go savage? Was it that he was afraid of the bunny's words at her press conference?

Perhaps it was his own doubt that terrified him. He answered with a 'no comment' for a reason. It meant he didn't want the public to know that this might be the beginning of something terrible, or that he didn't know himself what the answer was.

The Chief of police wasn't used to feeling powerless in a situation this big. He lost his first rabbit officer to the first death by mauling in her first three months of being an Officer. He was right to be tired.

Becky stood up, slow to get up from her crosslegged position on the couch. I watched her make her way across to the TV and reach for the power button. With a push, she turned it off.  
Silence permeated my being. It was unsettling. It must have surprised Becky just as much because she continued to stand beside the TV, staring at the blank screen.

With a sigh, she stepped toward the door to the hall. I heard her pick up her keys before opening the door.

"Lock up when you leave." Was all she said before I heard the door close behind her.

She was heading off to work. She was a bouncer at a local club, Kangaroo Kove. It was a prey club, owned by a middle aged joey named Devon. He confronted Becky in the street and was impressed by how tough she looked. After several compliments and flirts, Devon had her jumping for the job. He wanted someone with a no-shit-taking attitude to stand out front to keep away any trouble.

I was surprised after Becky came home, ecstatic at the fact she had well-paying job- I still think it's more thanks to the compliments she received- and told me all about it. She was the only predator employee there and has been for the last three and a half years. Beside a couple of occasions, Becky had to do nothing else beside stand in front of the entranceway and look intimidating, which in retrospect wasn't difficult when the customers were all small prey.

Mondays and Saturdays at this place was extra busy, and since Becky was the only bouncer she had to stay most of the day and night at the club. She hated it, but I kept pointing out she got double pay on both occasions. Devon might be strange kangaroo, but he did right by those who worked for him. And even if he was generous, the prices of existing in Zootopia still whittle down at her paycheck every week.

I sighed and threw my arms up around my head and lay back. I stared up at the ceiling, examining the hole somewhat in the middle. I smiled as I remembered the cause of it. One Christmas when Becky and I were alone she got a bottle of extra big champagne, deciding on buying booze from an elephant liquor store much to my annoyance. She didn't think of how we were going to open it but quickly thought it a good idea to just 'pop it open'.

The resulting pop made us both deaf for the remainder of the night and blew the cork straight through the ceiling and into the attic. That was the second occasion, and last, I ever got drunk. The next morning Becky had a hangover that haunted her for the rest of the day and I was adamant I had alcohol poisoning. Drinking was not fun when you're a lightweight...

My smirk grew into a smile. That was the best Christmas and the worst hangover. And that was like...

..four years ago? No, five.  
Shit, I couldn't remember. It was such a contrast to what was happening now.

I needed to do something.

With a huff I threw myself off the couch lazily, getting my feet under me just in time as I rolled off. I leisurely strolled over to the hallway and then into the kitchen. The clock on the far side of the yellow room read nine twenty. Plenty of time to try and go job searching.

I went upstairs, relieved myself and got a hoodie, then came back down and grabbed my set of keys. They jiggled as I placed the slightly too big keys into my pocket. I opened the door and stepped out, closing it behind me and locking the top and bottom lock.

The sunshine was just as bright as yesterday, thanks to the cloud of smoke emanating from the dump. The filthy air begun to annoy my nose as I made my way to the gate.

"Today better not be shit." I said as I leapt the gate, still too lazy to open it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if you guys got this far, maybe this wasn't completely garbage. If it was indeed bearable and you would like to see more, then you're in luck! Next Chapter will be out soon.
> 
> Okay, so first off: I'm horrible with computers and phones and junk, so half of what I say or do on this site might look very strange or in the extreme- idiotic. I ask for your forgiveness.
> 
> Second: When I watched Zootopia, I liked it. Not enough to write an entire story on it or even a small thousand word short story. Until I watched it again, and thought about it, probably too hard. I eventually said fuck it and wrote this in the hope that maybe it will satisfy me. But whatever.
> 
> If you did like it and feel the need to tell me, please comment or something. If you hated it and feel the need to tell me, then please, feel free to throw all sorts of profane insults my way and explain why my work is obscene. By default, criticism is very much welcome.
> 
> Thanks I guess.


	3. A March For Closure And Cash

"Barry!"

I heard a voice call me. Its owner wasn't recognizable at first, but then I saw him move quickly passed a group lingering at the center of the Rendezvous and jog up to me.

"Kyle, hey," I watched as he closed the distance between us. "What are you doing here?"

It wasn't ordinary for Kyle to hang around the Rendezvous, it was even less ordinary for him to have such a big grin.

"Barry, Jesus dude.. You're a difficult stoat to find sometimes."

"You just aren't look in the right shitholes, man. What's got you so psyched?"

His grin grew bigger and he leant down, lowering his voice.

"You up for some more work? Like, cause I heard there's a big crowd hitting Central tomorrow some time."

My eyes widened. I hadn't seen Kyle in two days and haven't done any money making with him for at least three weeks. After the bunny cop's… departure, we both decided to be a little cautious for a while, not wanting to add fuel to the anxious fire that were relations these couple weeks.

"What you talking about?"

Kyle stood straight and fondled his left horn. He did that when he was fidgety.

"Yo, so look. Some animals are going in one big group, a lotta country bunnies too...  
Like, they're gonna go pay their respects at the museum by putting down flowers and shit," he pursed his lips and shrugged, "so I was like: 'Why not just go out there and do some magic, lift the mood and junk, maybe even make a couple bucks'. And then I thought: 'Shit, Barry's been looking for some work this entire time, so why not share the profits'….  
So, wanna go to the museum and make some cash?"

I felt my mouth fall open as I tried to form a coherent sentence. I couldn't think of the right words. Kyles eager face hovered above me, staring down intently waiting for my response.

"Kyle... what the fuck?.. You wanna steal from mourning mammals?"

His expression faltered for a moment before he leaned over again, speaking slowly and purposefully.

"I wanna steal from mourning *tourists* ."

"...What?"

"Nah, look Barry," he starts walking out toward the lone news stand on the east corner of the Rendezvous. I followed in suit, not wanting to miss anything he said next.

"Its like this." he points to a newspaper resting in a pile on the counter in the stand. I take a closer look to read it's title.

"'Dozens Flock To Museum In Remembrance'?"

"Yea."

"Kyle.."

"Barry.."

"This isn't just some crowd of tourists," I gestured to the paper above me, a sour expression on my face. "This is a memorial."

He kept quiet for several seconds before pointing a hoof at me.

"But, there's gonna be a lotta poor souls lookin' for some mood lifters. So why not deliver?"

I felt my patience wither away as he ended off with wide arms and a smirk. I held back a growl.

"No, this isn't a cheer-everyone-up event. The- like- Kyle, they're sad about the cop."

He looked back at the paper with a confused frown. He studied it for some time. I crossed my arms and sighed.  
What the hell was he thinking? We couldn't just waltz into Savannah Central and expect to set up shop on the curb of the museum. Especially me! They were laying wreaths and gathering there to send a message to City Hall.

I mean- shit! If we went in there I would be torn apart by rabbits and any other prey that happened to be around.

"Yo, Barry. This isn't a protest or anything. Its a legit thing made by the copper's ma and pa. That's why there's gonna be so many bunnies."

"Oh, and it's got nothing to do with preds?" I narrowed my eyes.

He shook his head, his horns barely missing the top of the newsstand.  
"Nah, man. Its just a thing. Like I said, nothing bad is gonna happen."

I stood on my toes to get a closer look.  
I read the first two lines before someone cleared their throat. I glanced over to the stand owner, a pig who's head lazily rested on his hoof. He looked bored out of his mind.

"You boys buying?"

Kyle looked at me with a helpless expression. I sighed and dug into my back pocket, pulling out a bill and pushing it toward him. He took it gratefully and handed it over to the pig.

"Enjoy the news, bane of Zootopia's peace." Was all he said as he handed Kyle the same newspaper from under the stand. I promptly grabbed it out his hoofs and brought it close to my face.

The picture was clearer now. It depicted the Ancient History Museum from the street below, several mammals going about their business along the sidewalk. I begun reading.

"Blah blah blah blah blah blah..."

The first few lines were about Judy Hopps' memorial and the surrounding events, a gist of what it was all about and what would occur. Soon though, came what I was looking for.

"'Bonnie and Stu Hopps, mother and father to Judy Hopps, have created a champaign in the remembrance of their daughter. An event that will take place the third of March-'"

"Tomorrow." Kyle said simply.

"'... and span across Bunny Burrow and Savannah Central, the scene of the mauling.  
'All are welcome to attend, we want everyone who knew and loved Judy to be there in her memory.' Says Bonnie Hopps. The event will begin at ten in the morning at city center, where the attendees will march to the Ancient History Museum to lay wreaths and pay their respects...'"

I trailed off, looking up from the paper to Kyle, who had his confident smirk plastered across his face.

"You in, buddy?"

"Dude..." I shook my head and looked back down at the paper.

I studied the the picture and title some more, burning the words into my memory.

A toothy grin broke out across my mouth as I looked up again.

"How's it gonna work?"

Kyles smile broadened, my God, was it unnatural, and he pumped his fist in the air.

"Fuckin' knew I could count on ya, Barry! Okay- okay- so like..." He begun walking away from the stand and toward the exit of the Rendezvous. I folded the newspaper and tried to hold it off the ground as I scampered after him.

"I was thinking that we could just hang out around outside the museum. And wait for them all to get there. So when there's a lotta them we set up the stuff and I get to work and make some magic." He pretended to roll up his non existent sleeves and waggled his fingers around, lifting his eyebrows up and down all the while.

"So I donno how long we'll be there or whatever, but if a blue comes over and starts asking questions we just say we came to do some magic and make things happier and shit, but like- we gotta add that we're doing it in memory of Rudy Hopps or they won't believe us."

"Judy Hopps," I corrected. "And what if her family is there and tells you to leave or something? Cause from what I remember, rabbits have big family's, so most of the bunnies coming are gonna be her brothers and sisters?"

Kyle shrugged nonchalantly.

"We won't be right there bothering anyone. We'll be right down the street and just tell 'em that we do it there everyday or something. So they can't kick us cause we won't be in their faces, but if some angry bun does come around you gotta scare 'em off."

I scoffed.  
"Scare them off? The fuck am I supposed to do that?"

"You're a scary pred, you just gotta go up to one and say 'boo' and they'll run."

"To the police, I doubt they're that dumb to believe I could do anything either."

"The cop got mauled by a pred, man, and like... More preds are doing the savage thing, so I think they'll be all jumpy."

He had a point.

"... But don't start getting foam in your mouth or anything- just try and look tough."

"Not so good at that, Kyle."

"Give you your tough face."

"...What?"

"C'mon, let me see you when you're looking tough, try- just intimidate me."

He stopped, attempting to emphasize his point. I stopped too, staring up at him.

"You're serious?"

He nodded.  
He was serious.

"Kyle, I don't wanna..."

"Ahh! Barry, c'mon man! We gotta be prepared. If any prey come crashing our setup then we gotta know what you're capable of."

"I'm not scary, Kyle, let's just- no."

He smiled toothily, sighing loudly and placing his hooves on his hips.

"Nah, that's good. You mustn't be scary, we want tough."

"Kyle."

My voice was warning. I had resumed walking and was nearing the corner, exiting the Rendezvous. He walked briskly to catch up, that same shit-eating grin on his mug.

"Show me Barry."

"No."

"Show me Barry."

"No."

"Show me Barry!"

"Fuck off."

"Baaaaaarrr-"

"Fuck sakes, Kyle!"

I stop and glare at him, noting that the grin held firm under my hateful gaze. He motioned for me to start. After staring back for several seconds I sighed and pulled my paws from my pockets. Kyle watched expectantly, his grin slowly fading.

I crossed my arms across my chest after puffing it out then took a step back, leaning majority of my weight on my left leg, which was positioned further back from my right. I stared up at Kyle, adopting a disdainful sneer along with half lidded eyes and flattened ears. I held the position for a some time, watching Kyle reaction.

He scoffed.

I immediately broke form.

"Man... fuck you!" I growled out.

He scoffed again before gesturing wildly at me.

"Nah- nah! That was good, its just you need some... like, you're mouth is doing a little too much work and you're kinda short..."

"Wha-"

"Here."

Kyle digs in his pocket and pulls out a toothpick, chucking it in my direction. I quickly fumble to catch it.

"Stick it into your mouth, so when you do your thing it looks genuine."

I held the toothpick by one end. The thing was pretty big, too big to be comfortably used by myself. Must have been for those sticks of celery that Kyle always seemed to be chewing on.

"This is gonna make me look more intimidating?" I ask.

"Yea, otherwise you look real tough already, I got shivers and everything."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Start practicing man, I haven't used that one or anything... or maybe I did, recycling's important."

I held the toothpick up for a second, suddenly less eager to place it in my maw.

"Jokes, buddy. That's nasty," he laughed. "Recycling is important though."

"Yeah..."

We begun walking again, rounding the corner and making our way back onto Grass street.  
The street was full of activity, loud enough to noticeably tell the difference from the dead end we exited. Cars passed by, differently sized cars called for different lanes. Majority were mammals the size of the average wolf or hyena. Some others were bigger, hippos and bears occupying the driver seats. The smallest lane, closest to the curb belonged to mammals my size and smaller.

The influx of automobiles was constant. Various colors and models passing us by as we lazily made our way back to Dark Dirt. The air was soured by the noxious fumes pumped out by the exhausts but I didn't care, it was clean enough to ignore. Fresh air, not quite like the park but close enough. I needed to take Becky to the park sometime soon again. She's been working extra hard these few weeks, hasn't been out the house to just relax or have fun. Her birthday buzz went by quickly too. Should definitely do something nice for her. If the crowd was really going to be as big as Kyle said, then I'm sure we'll be doing just that soon.

"Yo, Kyle." I mumbled around the toothpick in the corner of my mouth.  
He grunted a response.

"I never asked, but it kinda came to me now. Why- cause you know you're an antelope... I just wanted to know how has the whole savage thing been sitting with you?"

Kyle didn't react for some time. He kept staring forward, his brow furrowing only somewhat, his deliberate steps and lazy smirk stayed the same however. I was about to tell him to forget about it before he answered.

"Its been pretty shit man, cause- y'know, we can't do our usual thing without being super cautious. And my pa ain't coping with the shit going down in Happytown, plus all the extra serious stuff on the news and the papers and everyone needs to talk about it and get angry..."

He trailed off, pursing his lips.

"But know what? It's not so bad. I mean, it is real crap, but not in a way none if us can't handle it. And like, I shouldn't be complaining cause I'm prey, you preds got it worse. The- th- the short end of the stick! Yeah. You guys got the short end of this crappy stick."

He looked over to me with an almost sorrowful expression. My expression mimicked his, feeling just as forlorn.

"And I know all this stuff going on is hard, but its gonna get better."

"But what if it doesn't," I blurted out. "You donno if some suit in city hall will decide to single preds out."

He contemplates my words for a second before nodding and putting a hoof in the air.

"Yeah, you're right. Some crook in government could totally out you guys, like- even by tomorrow they could make a new bunch of laws that single you all out," he shrugged and smiled down at me. "But then again, there could be one suit in there who wants to make things easier for everyone... And by tomorrow all preds would be on equal terms with prey. Everyone could live all happy together. Prey and preds would become friends, some could get married- fuck, some might even decide to go out there and fix the savage thing properly.  
Its all in the way you look at it, buddy."

"Things won't just magically become all better." I said bitterly.

"Nah, but if you give it enough time... something good might happen that'll like- change some minds. It will be all slow-like, but it'll happen eventually."

"That's probably the best advice you've ever given me, Kyle."

He scoffed, fanning the air with his hoof.

"All my advice is good, you just don't listen enough."

I laughed, probably too hard than was necessary, but it felt good. Kyle was the pinnacle of easygoing and the most relaxed mammal I've ever met. His coherent speeches were few and far between, but none have made me feel so much better about a situation like this one has.

He watched me with an amused grin. Slowing down slightly as I swayed and slowed, chuckling slightly.

"All I'm saying, Barry, don't let it get to you to hard. Or like- you'll get depressed."

"Can't have that huh?" I smirked.

"Nope, can't let you go around dampening my style."

"Har..." I roll my eyeballs.

Kyle shrugged and fell silent. We walked quietly around the corner and made our way into our street. The sound of bustling cars died down as we strolled up the sidewalk and passed the variously colored houses, of which many had chipped paint. We soon passed the llama brothers, only two of them were out on the front steps, the twins. They paid us no mind though, too engrossed in their conversation to provide a passing glare.

My house came up and I bid farewell to Kyle, watching him walk leisurely across the game of football going on in the street, getting a solid kick on the ball as it rolled by him. After opening the door and stepping in the perpetually cold hallway I called out for Becky. I received no reply. She was probably still at work. I had the house to myself.

I put the TV on and threw myself on the couch, landing on the hard remote in the process. I lay back into the couch, savoring the coolness that came off of the fabric.

A cooking show was on. Mary and Madge's Kitchen for Beginners. I stared at the screen as Madge, a portly jaguar begun to explain what you should try to avoid when making the dough for your spongecake. I blinked twice before hitting a button on the remote. The screen flashed as the picture of puffy cheeked jaguar was replaced by Geoffrey the Giraffe.

The cartoon giraffe was in the middle of a sentence, ending off by telling his friend, a comically short shrew that the only way to cross the river was to use his neck as a bridge. The shrew opened her tiny mouth to reply before I hit another button and came across another channel. It depicted a cow explaining the plan on the dam her beaver employers wanted built was going to be done. I went through all the channels, watching each for five seconds before skipping to the next one.

I quickly begun running out of channels before hitting the third last button on my remote. The two familiar anchors appeared on screen.

"-st as Mayor Bellwether explains that the decision to promote the memorial as self explanatory. Representative Sundown still has not changed his stance. Meanwhile..."

Oh. The news. My digit quickly pressed the next button to replace the snow leopard mid-sentence with a reality TV show, Hearts and Paws, if my limited knowledge on trends was anything to go by.

I stared blankly at the screen. My brow furrowed and creased.

Was I avoiding the news?  
I tried to go back, but my finger merely hovered above the eighteenth button. I was.  
My frown grew deeper.

Why would I be avoiding the news? Was there something I was worried about?

  
I sighed.  
Kyle got me thinking a lot less about the savage case, that could be the reason. I told myself I wasn't going to be interested in it anymore, that I would forget that it ever bothered me and try not to freak out every time somebody mentioned it.

Yet here I was, purposefully avoiding a channel because it was too intimidating for me. Because I knew there would be non stop coverage of the savagery that spread across Zootopia. That every now and then, someone would mention the long gone rabbit officer and shed a tear. She's still been the only death by mauling, but others have been close. Too close.

I was afraid of the informative nature of the news. Because if I were to watch it, then I'd know what's happening in the rest of Zootopia. Even when I had told myself that staying knowledgeable was important, it felt like it didn't matter anymore. If I did watch it then I'd know that this whole savage thing I've stuck into a dark corner of my mind is actually very real, then I'd know that advice Kyle gave me will be worth shit because all I'll be thinking about is how fucked everything could be and I'll never get a peaceful night of sleep again.

"Jesus, when did I become such a whiny ass?"

I clicked the button and the anchors were back on screen, looking as nonchalant as ever.

"According to several online forums, the March For Judy taking place tomorrow, is said to have more that two thousand attendees. The public is urged to make divergent routes along Evergreen and Yellowgrass street as the streets will be cordoned off to allow safe passage of attendees."

Kyle was right, there were going to be a *lot* of marchers.

"Thank you Peter, in other news a family of three were caught unawares this morning by a savage attack."

Oh no.

"Oscar and Leah Shorttail along with their daughter, Vicky, were walking down Treetop street in the Rainforest district this morning on their way to Vicky's school."

"Witnesses around the area describe a long tailed weasel in his early thirties suddenly collapse before attacking the family."

"Mr Shorttail has just come out of critical condition."

I barely felt my hands at the sides of my head, gripping the fur beneath my ears.

"The unnamed weasel has been contained and is pending admittance into Mayor Bellwethers clinic. Mrs Shorttail was not available for comment. Later, Dr Snarls and Dr Buk will answer some questions regarding the forty fifth case of sav-"

My paw trembled as I clicked the power button. The screen flickered and went black. My heart raced, beating quick and hard in my chest. My stomach churning with oncoming nausea. I felt so sick.

More than that, I felt fear, worse than any I had before. My blood didn't run cold and my eyes didn't tear up. I only felt this sick dread settle into my the bottom of my stomach and weigh me down.

I was terrified. Not so much of the reaction to savages, nor what that implied for predators.  
I was afraid of becoming savage now. This example, this alone proved that no predator was safe.

Any kind of comfort I felt in not being like any of those savages on TV was gone. Replaced by that event, with me being the unnamed weasel who went crazy and tore a father apart in front of his wife and daughter. I would be the one in Bellwethers God-forsaken hospital. It'd be me on the news.

I could go savage, and nothing could stop it from happening.

 

* * *

 

"I'll see you later B!" I called into the house, hoping Becky would actually hear me. I paused for a second and, upon hearing nothing, stepped out the front door into the outside world.

God, this was going to suck.

I hopped the gate and leisurely walked up the sidewalk. There were no kids out playing today, the weather must have been too bad. The sunny, cloudless sky from yesterday was nonexistent, replaced by angry looking thunder clouds that hid the sun and a breeze that threatened to become a gust. I hadn't watched the weather channel last night after turning the TV off.

If the clouds were to open and soak us, the marchers might call the thing off, then we'd have no audience and no cash at the end of the day. I was still hopeful though, that maybe the breeze would push the storm clouds away from Savannah Central.

The street was eerily empty, I was the only mammal on it beside Mr Humpert, a lanky camel that was busy fixing his mailbox. He didn't glance up from his work as I moved by.

I ignored the empty silence. It wasn't unlike the community to become shut-in after a turn in the weather. I remember when it rained nonstop for a week. Beatriz was outside, preaching the end of the world along with two other elderly mammals I'd never met. The animals here didn't like change, especially when it came quick. I was fairly sure the entirety of Zootopia was like that, if the news and recent protests were anything to go by.

I continued on my way, paws firmly in my jean pockets, hood up to keep the chill out my shirt, toothpick jutting out awkwardly from between my teeth. Kyle's words on my intimidation tactics were disheartening to say the least. I couldn't fix my height, but I could put a stick in my mouth so my sneer didn't overdo anything. I'd practiced in front of the mirror, feeling like an idiot the entire time, just to make sure I didn't look *too* ridiculous. I was satisfied, but this toothpick was getting on my nerves, I had to resist the urge to bite down and break it. I wasn't used to having products in my mouth that weren't edible, well, besides the occasional smoke. I didn't chew gum and I didn't gnaw on tobacco, so holding a toothpick between my teeth took some getting used to.

Not only that, Kyles comments from yesterday also got me thinking of my dress code. I usually wore plain shirts that covered my thin frame and some form of shorts. I didn't like jeans much, but this cold weather called for it. My hoodie was the only thing that felt a little too large for me. It was a gift from a seamstress pangolin after I retrieved her keys from inside her store. She was so glad she didn't have to call a locksmith to get back in she took my measurements. I never thought being able to break into someone's store would end with the owner personally repaying me. I was grateful though, beyond grateful. The hoodie was probably my best article of clothing.

I winced as I felt the first patter of raindrops on the concrete. Several more seconds before some hit the top of my hood. I didn't speed up, I heard once that running in the rain make you more wet than walking, so I didn't want to risk getting soaked. The walk up to Kyle's place was uneventful otherwise. I didn't spy another soul on the street after Mr Humpert.

I rounded a shallow bend in the street and came up to Kyles gate. He was already leaning on his fence, puffing away at a cigarette.

"Hey, buddy."

"What's up, Kyle."

He flashed a grin and pointed to his mouth. I stared in confusion before realizing what he meant.

"Oh! Yeah- yeah, I've been... trying it out."

"I like it, makes you look all gruff and foreign."

"What?"

"Yo, check out what I got today!" He excitedly shoved his hoof into his pocket and pulled out a new deck of cards, plastic wrapped and everything.

"Finally got a new deck huh?" I grinned, amused by his eagerness. He loved cards, it was basically most of his performance.

"Yeah! Y'know, thought it was time I got some more... like— cause this is like a new start."

I raised an eyebrow.  
"A new start?"

"For real! For me, for you, for my pa. Probably a lot of other mammals too."

I nodded slowly and motioned my head to the side, trying to get him to move. He pushed off the fence and followed.

"Gonna elaborate?" I asked.

"Kay, you see, we're like new mammals. Since everything is changing, we changed too. Like you're a lot more intimidating now!"

I rolled my eyes hard.

"No! Really! You're also a lot more laid back about mammals now than you were before. You still worry sometimes, but not as hard."

He didn't know. Didn't know that I *was* worrying all the time. Close to completely freaking out about how absolutely terrifying this entire situation was. He didn't need to know either. As long as he didn't worry about me, it was like nothing changed.

"And me," he motioned towards himself. "I've also changed. I've set aside my urges to use up all my cash and saved up some cash. By the end of today, my grand plan will be set in motion." He gestured his hooves around wildly, his grin breaking into a huge smile.

"We're gonna get heavily paid today, Barry, and when we do, imma call up my pa and tell him I got him a new place."

My eyes widened.  
"Serious? That's great, man!"

"Yeah, the old sable deserves it, I just get worried about him sometimes, y'know with what's happening now in Happytown and that. So I just want him to get a good safe place somewhere nearby- so I can visit him more."

His father did deserve it. Kyle grew up in a loving home. His dad was a single father after his mom died young. He worked himself to the bone for Kyle, making sure his son had food at eat and clothes to wear. Kyle never forgot that, he promised that he would do right by his dad. By the end of today he probably would.

"I got enough cash for a two roomed house over here in Savannah. Nothing too fancy, but a helluva lot more room for him do his thing."

"That's nice, Kyle. He'll appreciate it."

"I hope so, all that matters though, is that he's safe. Happytown ain't what it used to be."

He was right about that. Happytown wasn't anything like it used to be. Which was good, it used to be the slums of Zootopia, a real bad place to walk through. When the city decided to renovate it and make it more livable for all species, especially the predators as they made up just over seventy percent of the homeowners, and a nicer place to visit. It became true to its name.

But in the last week, the suburb had fallen apart again. Angry mammals flocked onto the streets and rioted. There was no more protesting, there was only destruction. Since majority of Happytown was predator, majority of the gatherings formed were predator. They shouted and threw stones, setting tyres alight and breaking the windows of houses and cars. The place had become dirty and dangerous again. Police were up to their ears in calls and complaints from the residents. Politicians kept promising it would be rectified.  
What was Bellwether doing about it though? Supporting a memorial march for a dead bunny.

I understood why Kyle wanted to move his dad out. Just like I understood his mindset about Zootopia. It could get worse, but it could also get better. I hoped Happytown would get better.

I fell to my musing. Walking silently as the raindrops around us dampened the cement. It wasn't actually rain, it was more of a drizzle. More annoying than actual rain.

We exited Dark Dirt on the west side and made our way to the train station nearby. The trains in Zootopia were famous for being the best, the most used form of public transport and took you nearly anywhere you wanted to go.

We were planning on taking the Animalia line to Little Rodentia, where the crowd would eventually move through before reaching the Natural History Museum. I didn't know how long we would have to wait, hopefully not long enough to get bored.

As we got closer we heard the sound of many mammals, mumbling and talking, moving around the steel boarding platform. The next train was scheduled to come soon.  
We stepped up to the nearest helping window, where a lioness stood, sorting out papers and typing away at her small computer.

"Hi there," She greeted with a fangless smile. "How can I help you gentlemammals."

She must have noticed Kyle talking to someone as we walked down the street. I could barely see her over the counter. Throwing off my hood and wiping away some moisture on the top of my snout, I spoke up.

"Two tickets to Little Rodentia, please."

She nodded and hit a couple of keys on her computer and smiled as her gaze returned to us.

"You boys are in luck, the next train has just enough seats. Been pretty busy lately considering."

We waited as she printed out some tickets, stamped them and handed them over in return for money, Kyle brought his wallet this time. After bidding her a good day we stepped up to the platform, which was surrounded by mammals of every size. The trains of Zootopia were also amazingly designed. Nearly every sized animal could make use of them in comfort. Giraffes had enough headroom, elephants wouldn't get stuck in the doorways, mice had seats their sizes and walkways to reach them. It was probably the most mammal friendly piece of equipment the entire of Zootopia had to offer, and by the look of all the species lined up around the platform, my deduction held true.

We stood in silence for a couple of minutes, the green slip of a ticket that I had declared that the train's departure time would be 9:06, which would be in another ten minutes. Not the longest wait, but long enough. The surroundings weren't as impressive as the train, it was built to provide shelter, that's all it did.

The mammals inside it were more fascinating. Most of the mammals were alone, either playing on their phones or daydreaming. Some were in small groups, usually of two to four at a time. Many of those were couples. One badger couple stood together, speaking in low voices and throwing a glance toward the smaller badger that must have been their child. Several other couples stood together discussing something quietly, laughing softly together or sometimes just standing hand in hand. They seemed too happy to be sad. It felt strange. Although I'd heard that the deceased usually want you to celebrate their memory happily and without sadness. It was a weird idea, considering the mammal was dead.

The platform clock above the railway indicated it was 9:02.

I sighed. Time better not take as long when we reach Little Rodentia, I just wanted to get the day over with. A glance over at Kyle showed he wasn't as bored as me. He rocked slightly, back and forth while patting the side of his jeans to a tune that barely escaped his lips. Utterly useless for conversation, I turned to look back at the crowd. Some mammals shifted in position, allowing more bodies to became visible to me from the other side of the platform. The bright colour offsetting the dark surroundings caught my eye.

A small group of three stood huddled around a cell phone that the middle mammal, a pronghorn, held. The two rabbits on either side of him stared intently on the screen. The bright white, yellow and green (which piqued my attention) of their shirts shone brightly. There was something written on their shirts, a picture too. I waited for one of them to shift so I could get a better view. After exchanging between looking around, staring at their shirts and looking around again, whatever they were watching eventually ended and they separated slightly. Whatever they were watching was supposed to be funny because both bunnies were chuckling, the pronghorn smiling. The left rabbit stepped back and turned to face her friends. I caught a view of her shirt.

In big bold letters stood:

"MARCH FOR JUDY"

The picture was in the middle, the "MARCH FOR" above it. It was the same facade I saw on the news all those times. The bunny cop, Judy Hopps' disembodied head stood out in the bright yellow of the shirt. She was smiling, almost as hard and proudly as the one taken during her graduation. Her violet eyes shone with happiness and kindness. Below her genuine smile was her name:

"JUDY"

They were all wearing the same shirt. I felt my lip pull back. Was I disgusted? I didn't think so, I didn't feel disgusted. Maybe it was just the fact that she had been the cause of most of the mayhem around Zootopia. She made an assumption about the reasons behind savagery before it had even been scientifically proven. It was a mistake that hurt a lot of predators. She couldn't atone for it, because she was dead.  
Nothing was set in stone like the words of the deceased.

Seeing her happy face like that on a shirt disturbed me. My stare must have been noticeable, because the rabbit I was watching felt eyeballs on her. She looked away from her companions and searched for their source, soon finding me. I helplessly stared back into her eyes. Her expression didn't change, it neither hardened nor softened. I looked away first, letting my gaze drop to the floor.

The train arrived. We all climbed on and showed our tickets to the passing conductor. I sat in silence beside Kyle, who had adopted another song to silently sing. I didn't feel like striking up conversation. This entire marching event felt off, as if it held hidden malice. Locating it was impossible though. Locating more of the shirts was easy however. They were everywhere, mammals that wore the "MARCH FOR JUDY" t-shirts that came in four bright colours.

The trip went surprisingly quick. The intercom spoke in a static voice, declaring Little Rodentia was coming up. We readied ourselves close to the doors. When the train halted and the doors slid open, we were the first out, moving quickly to avoid getting caught up in the imminent crowd.

"Looks like a lotta marchers have the same plan as us." Kyle said absentmindedly.

"You noticed the shirts?" I glanced up his way, he seemed pensive.

"Course, kinda hard not to with the neon yellows and that. Its nice."

"Nice?" I couldn't help but frown.

"Yea," he looked around, searching for something. "Its nice to see mammals wanna remember her smile and stuff. I mean— its better than remembering her for being the first mauled animal to die."

He had a point. Again. He was on a roll lately, did he just handle shitty situations that well?

"I guess so, kinda creepy though." I murmured.

"Oh yeah! Hella creepy." He laughed a little too loudly. I smiled, glad he thought so to. I wouldn't delve further into it.

"What's our first order of business, O' great magician?" I spun on my paw to face him and took to walking backwards. He played along.

"Well, squire! I believe we need to set up our magic station somewhere in..." He trailed off, searching the street around us. "That direction!" He pointed towards Open Plain road, a tar street that stretched along the way to Savanna Central.

I nodded in agreement and we set off.

 

* * *

 

The walk down to Savannah Central, city center, was relaxed. Kyle and I spoke about idle matters, anything to avoid the subject of Judy Hopps, savage predators or the future. Kyle was more than happy to oblige.

The weather also looked promising. The stormy look of the clouds earlier dissolved as more of the sky became visible. The wind died down slightly too, becoming a cool breeze. The march would still go on.

Many of the mammals in the 'March for Judy' shirts walked along with us. It was a mini exodus to the heart of Zootopia. I don't think they were going to walk as far as most of the other attendees, they just wanted to be there to show their support. I didn't see those bunnies and pronghorn again.

Kyles phone read 10:13, just over an hour of walking. I registered a dull ache in my pawpads, leading up my calves and thighs. Kyle still seemed in top shape though. He bounced with enthusiasm and wore his smile proudly. I reminded myself, yet again, to get fit.

Savannah Central buzzed with activity, more than it usually did. I didn't go there often, the crowds kept me away for the most part and it was out of the way to go do any shopping. Every time I had been there it teemed with life, all through the day and night. Mammals were always on the curbs, cars always on the street. The area was always lit up. Now though, it was the epitome of movement. Mammals loitered around the what was once a watering hole in the center, in front of the Natural History Museum, and moved around the surrounding store, shopping for merchandise and refreshments.

The place was busy and teeming with the colours of various pelts and clothing.  
And a lot of blue.

"Hey, Kyle," I nudged his side, "there's an awful lot of police around here."

Kyle didn't seem surprised and merely pointed at the big building across from the Museum. The ZPD headquarters.  
*The ZPD headquarters!*  
How did I forget they were here. This was precinct one!

"O-oh." Was all I managed.

"Don't stress, Barry. We got this handled, just y'know... don't act too suspicious."

The toothpick in my mouth drooped slightly.

"You literally wanted me to look intimidating!"  
My outburst caused a few mammals in close proximity to glance our way. I didn't care, and neither did Kyle.

"Pfft... yeah- right- yeah, I know. But if the blues come around, I'll bail us out. Like— they don't even have to know we're together."

"I dunno, man."

He shook his head and squatted down in front of me, much to my annoyance.  
  
"Dude. Its fine. We'll hang back for a little bit, see what the crowds like. Get off to a place like...." He looked around and pointed in a random direction, "There, that looks good. We can set up shop there in a little bit and I'll do my thing. And you— you can do yours."

I looked away for a second, trying to quell my apprehension. This was going to be like all the other times, except it wasn't. These were a bunch of sad mourners. We were right next to the museum she was killed in, the precinct where the bunny everyone was mourning used to work at was another twenty metres the other way. She made her hurtful statement in that building. Kyle kept his position, his smile faltered only slightly at my reluctance but for the most part stayed intact. My ears flattened against my skull. I'd better not regret this.

"Yea, okay. Let's go."

Kyle's smile didn't broaden, he just nodded in acknowledgement and stood up. I led the way through the many mammals. They didn't have anything better to do than wait for the other marchers to arrive and begin whatever they were doing. I think it was a speech of some sort. They mulled around, speaking to one another or on their phones. Some stared as we passed.

A lot of them wore the Judy shirt. They were all here for the march. We stuck out in the crowd, which wasn't good. I couldn't look inconspicuous if I wasn't wearing that shirt, or if I looked intimidating in the slightest. This wasn't going to be easy, Kyle was certain we would do well though, so there was possibly some hope. We reached the curb. It was slightly out of the way from the rest of the growing group mulling about on the sidewalks, far enough not to bothered by any pedestrians but close enough not to be noticed. Kyle strolled up to it and sat on the curb unceremoniously.

"Now all we got to do is wait." He said slowly.

We waited.

 

  
I sighed. It already felt like hours had passed with absolutely no change. I looked at the large clock stationed beside City Hall.

10:20.

I sighed again. I lay on the concrete with my paws behind my head, staring at the sky. The clouds floated lazily, drifting in some high air current. I lost myself in their swirling forms, sometimes gazing past them, through the occasional opening, into the sky beyond. I thought of many things. All of them weren't of the March taking place or the amount of mammals around Kyle and I. I nearly fell asleep once or twice. Soon though, I felt myself grow bored.  
I glanced up again at the clock beside City Hall.

10:22

Sitting up abruptly, I pulled the toothpick out of my pocket and stuck it into my mouth. I had nothing else better to do. I chewed on the end of the wooden nuisance before looking over to Kyle. He sat there, with his new deck of cards in his hoof, unopened.  
I watched him watch his cards. He wasn't doing anything.

"Kyle."

His head twitched at his name, his eyes soon followed. He looked down to me with a flat expression.

"What are you doing?"

His expression turned to surprise.

"I- I dunno." He slurred.

"What?"

"I dunno, man."

I paused, unable to think of a reply.

"... Why don't you open them?" I motioned to his new deck.

He held it up higher at my mention of it, his eyes examining it in great detail. He seemed intrigued by the question.

"I... don't wanna ruin it."

My brow furrowed.

"But- you're going to eventually. That's what happens."

"Yeah, I know." He fixed his gaze on it.

I waited for him to continue, but when he didn't I spoke again.

"Why not just open it now and get it over with, cause it's gonna happen eventually, right?"

"You're right, but if I open it now. Its essentially got a shorter life span than if I didn't. So like- I'll leave it wrapped up for now until I really need to use it. That way, it'll have a longer life, I think."

My frown deepened. What he said made sense but I didn't understand the concept behind it. To make the deck last longer? Even if only by several hours?

"Why give it a longer life?"

"Cause that's all we want y'know— to live longer and prosper and that shit. So... I kinda feel obliged to give something its full potential when I bring it into the world."

"Even when its a pack of cards."

"Totally. If you could make something live longer, wouldn't you?"

I considered the question, prompting myself to respond honestly.

"Depends what it is I'm making last longer."

"Ooh, clever." Kyle chuckled.

"Yeah, cause you could easily make something bad like pain last longer. Nobody likes pain."

"There's some good pain."

I lifted an eyebrow.

"Oh? Please elaborate?"

"Kay- so its two in the morning and you wake up hungry as hell. You get up and go to the fridge to get some chow and like, after stuffing your face you feel all sick and crappy," Kyle accompanied his dialogue with an act. He was currently holding his stomach and looking sick. "So you're body's like: 'Nah, I don't dig all this food in me' and you're like: 'C'mon body, don't be such a dick, its just a little bit more than you usually get, plus you were super hungry'.

"But the stomach is a dick anyways and you just throw everything up, y'know," Kyle made the motion like he was vomiting into something, making gesture all the while to his organs. "So now you're stomach is empty and you're body's done being a dick so its all okay. Then you feel it!"

He paused and stared at me. I eventually gave a small shrug and motioned for him to continue.

"The pain. Like- you're throat hurts and you got this shitty taste in your mouth. You feel all empty and weak. That pain is good. That pain goes with some sort of… relieved feeling. Relieved that your body didn't kill you and now you got pain. You're happy you got that pain, cause then you know you're not choking on your sick."

"Kyle, what the fuck?"

"Kay- okay! Better example: you do something dumb and get a bruise, and you feel yourself poking it cause-"

"I'll just pretend that you made a valid point."  
I roll my eyes and hunch myself over, feeling very lethargic.

Kyles mouth pulls downwards as he holds his hooves in the air helplessly. We fell to silence again. I felt the need to check the clock again, but I knew I would only be disappointed that it wasn't later. It wasn't a good idea, yet I did it.

10:38

Not bad actually. Time had passed relatively quickly. Not quick enough though. I sighed again. Seems I was doing a lot of that.

I got up, trying to rid myself of the lazy haze settling in my limbs. After shaking my arms and legs out I looked over to Kyle, who watched me emotionlessly. I frowned as he continued to stare. I felt uncomfortable but continued to stretch myself out anyway.

"What I would give to be in your house in the morning."

The sentence stumped my stretching. I dragged my eyes back over to Kyle with a questioning look.

"Not in a creepy way or anything. Just like- its funny seeing your small self stretching and that."

I huffed, annoyed by his remark. I wouldn't rise to the bait this time. He made me insufferably mad when he brought up my stature. On many occasions I've heard mammals remark on how 'cute' or 'adorable' I was. Based only on my size. One occasion I was actually grabbed and hugged nearly to death by a hippo toddler.  
Kyle was there. He did nothing.  
The mother eventually heard my wheezing and freed me, apologizing profusely.

Kyle never forgot that day and gave every last detail to Becky, who just ate it up.  
Larger mammals just did that though, predator and prey. Just because someone was smaller than them they would place them into a category. Either: "Nuisance that gets under your feet" or "Adorably tiny".  
I preferred the former.

Kyle knew better than to mock me about my height, just like I knew better than to mock his fear of bugs. But sometimes we broke the unspoken rule just to get a ruse out of each other, most of the time it was Kyle.

He snickered as my face soured. I ignored it and looked around the area. The crowd had grown considerably larger, it was difficult to believe that more mammals would be coming with the actual march. None of the Judy-shirts noticed us, they were too busy discussing matters with one another.

Some wore civilian clothing like Kyle and I. They also spoke with each other and sometimes with the Judy-shirts. I saw a couple of police officers move through the crowd, leisurely surveying the scene for anything that would raise alarm. When counting, there were a lot of the blue uniforms.

The toothpick in my maw rattled against my teeth as I plucked it out. Might be better if they don't see it, don't want to look like a deviant, in case Kyle's advice proved correct. I stowed it in my pocket. A loud laugh suddenly filled the din of activity. My eyes searched and found a towering rhino officer, laughing along with a couple of Judy-shirts that sat around in a circle of the grass.

They exchanged several more words, along with smiles and chuckles, before the rhino lumbered away towards a nearby coffee stand. The Judy-shirts focused their attention back into the middle of the circle. A radio. Why not?

I strolled across the street, barely looking for any traffic. Kyle said something but I didn't hear, nor cared. I made it to the other side fairly quickly and kept my walk slow as I approached the group. The sound from the radio grew louder, becoming more coherent as I neared. My ears swivelled slightly to allow me hear better.

"<-uge. They're literally filling the streets to the brim!>" A far away voice shouted over something louder than himself. I strained to make out what it was. "<The supporters have now entered Open Plain street and are chanting as loud as their lungs will allow! I think I can make out Bonnie and Stu Hopps at the vanguard from here! Difficult though, it's just a sea of rabbits!>"

Must be of the main march. The voice had to be a reporter... reporting from a helicopter?  
They got a helicopter in for this? Bellwether must be pulling a lot of strings.

"<Thank you, Jefferson," a feminine voice replaced the barely audible Jefferson. "The March For Judy is well on its way to Savannah Central.>"

"<The turnout for this event is staggering.>" a different voice said quickly, his tone of voice pleasantly surprised.

"<Mammals were quick to jump on board after hearing Bonnie and Stu's proposal. Mayor Bellwether herself helped organise and fund the march.>" the female voice answered.

"<I believe she will be speaking at the Natural History Museum later as well.>"

"<Along with a few of Judy's siblings and parents. A charged event in the memory of a great rabbit.>"

"<Indeed, the speeches are said to take place at midday. In other news, Hendrik Blackburn's case is still under review, his next court appearance is said to take place next Tuesday...>"

I continued on my way, deciding to walk around the area of mammals to reach Kyle again.

Bellwether was going to speak here, I didn't remember reading it in the paper. That's just perfect.

I grumbled beneath my breath as I skirted several yaks. The security was going to be tight if the mayor was appearing. I wondered if Kyle knew. Made sense, of course he wouldn't tell me, probably worried he would stress me out or something.

I wasn't stressed. No, this wasn't stress.

I was wary.

  
And yeah- a little worried.  
It was going to be fine though. Kyle did what he always did, I'll do what I always did and if something goes sour - we jump.  
Simple.

What did I get myself into though?  
The paper said there were gonna be something like a thousand mammals here. Many more were coming. We could be caught so easily. The risks were real, and just because I'd never been caught before, didn't mean I'd be safe this time.

Kyle couldn't go through with this, he couldn't make me go through with this either.  
I picked up the pace and weaved through the crowd, travelling back to my antelope friend.

I broke through the gathering of animals and crossed the street, not bothering to check for cars.

Kyle's backpack was open, his cheesy wizard gown already on. He was getting ready to perform.  
I had to stop him before he got too psyched up. I was gonna grab his backpack and make sure he put everything back, including his oversized wand he was busy stuffing into his sleeve.  
I was gonna tell him I wasn't interested anymore, and that I just wanted to go home and keep myself out of trouble.

But when I came to a stop I noticed movement at the corner of my eye.  
Two small figures approached. One was very small.

"I told you mom! He's still here."  
A rabbit kit shouted excitedly to her mother, who she was busy dragging along across the road. Seems nobody was checking for cars today.

Her mother held an amused expression, directed at her daughter's loud voice.  
The kit let go of her hand halfway across the street and darted up to Kyle before I could open my mouth.

She stood before him. It was a sight, this small rabbit with her boisterous smile plastered across her face that was made to look even smaller by Kyles oversized robe. The robe was bought in a thrift store by Kyle, who took a liking to the light blue, wizard look of it. I never told him how ridiculous he looked in it. That and the hat that came with it, unfortunately for the hat- and fortunately for his dignity- his horns tore it up when he attempted to put it on, which he claimed he forgot he had. To replace the pointy hat he used tinsel to decorate his horns. I couldn't tell if the hat would have been worse.  
The kids seemed to like it though.

"Excuse me!" The kit shouted overly loudly to the antelope before her. He jumped slightly at her voice turning quickly to face her.

"Hey there."

"Do you do magic?"

A smirk formed on Kyles face. He places his hooves on the front of his robe and held it proudly.

"Only the best."

The kit turned to her mother, who mounted the curb and approached the two.

"See, I told you he was a magician."

The mother only smiled back and turned her attention to the sable antelope in front of her.

"Hi, sorry. Amelia just told me about seeing you here. Had to see you for myself. You doing a performance later?"

Kyles smile only broadened as he did a little bow.

"A pleasure ma'am. Getting ready right now," he gestured to some of his equipment laying around his backpack. "Thought it might lighten the mood."

The rabbit nodded in understanding, still slightly reserved. Her kit pulled on her mother's paw.

"Can we come watch?"

"What time are you planning on starting?" The mother asked.

He quickly threw an arm in the air and announced loudly. "Sable the Magnificent will be ready in about a half an hour," this brought about a fit of giggles for the kit. "I must first find my allusive minion."

"Not your minion." I answer quickly, making three heads turn towards me. They hadn't noticed me before.

Kyle huffed. "Fine, assistant then," He turned his attention back to the rabbits. "Please do come, I'll be doing a lot of new tricks today."

The mother nodded and started walking off, pulling her daughter along. The kit waved energetically as she was dragged off. Sable The Magnificent waved back, shouting: "Bring friends and family!"

I turned to Kyle and sighed. I couldn't pull him out of his robe now. He was going to stay, with or without me.

"Been wondering where you were at." He said.

"Yeah, well... Found out Bellwether is gonna speak here."

"Oh."

"Oh?"

"I kinda saw it happening, but it's still sorta weird."

"We could get caught, Kyle. Securities gonna be a pain in the ass."

"S'long as I do my thing and you keep that toothpick in your mouth, we'll be good." He didn't seem perturbed by the new development at all. It irked me.

"You got a thing to stand on yet?"

"Nah, been looking for my bubble blower."

"I'll be back." I say as I pass him, intent on finding a podium.

"Bring back something big, minion!" Kyle shouted over his shoulder, provoking a laugh out of me. I saw him smirk, before returning to find his bubbles. He fucked around a little too dangerously sometimes, but he did care.

I turned into the alley and begun searching for any box sturdy enough to hold the antelope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I added this chapter I found a couple of typos in the other two chapters, which sucks big time.  
> So yeah, sorry about that and any future grammer/writing errors.
> 
> I'll do my best to smooth them all out so the story makes sense, but if any of you guys catch one I might have missed (probably a good chance of that, I'm horrible at proof-reading) please demand it to be fixed. Nothing sucks like the fluidity of a story being ruined by a missing word or misplaced sentence.
> 
> Chapter 4 will be out.... some time.


	4. Riding Out The Goldrush

The rest of the march arrived soon after those two rabbits left. It wasn't hard to miss. The sound of hundreds of mammals moving together was anything but subtle. Songs were being sung, all unfamiliar to me. I supposed they were about living in the country or something, most of the march was made up of country bunnies after all.

That's another thing. The amount of bunnies that flooded city center was unfathomable. It was nice seeing a whole bunch of mammals my size in one place but wow.

Kyle was equally surprised. Neither of us had seen so many rabbits all together like this. City rabbits didn't have many kits, purely because living in the city was expensive. Food and space being the most unaffordable. Country bunnies on the other hand seemed to never run out of the resources for more offspring. Bunny Burrow wasn't only known for being the main producer of vegetables for Zootopia.

I should've expected it, but it was still shocking. What wouldn't surprise me was if the Apocalypse was brought about by hordes of bunnies aiming for world domination. The number of rabbits here alone convinced me they could do it.

They spread out between the current crowd, letting the song and shouts die down. All of them wore Judy-shirts. By this time, which was about twelve minutes passed eleven, Sable The Magnificent was lost in his act. He stood atop his pedestal, in a midst of cutting string and magically fixing it again.

He had a large audience, made up mostly of rabbits of course. Kits and cubs stares up in awe as Kyle revealed the string that was once again whole. Parents watched intently as well, finding the magician's demeanour amusing.

Kyle fell into the magician persona whenever he did a trick. He'd put on a haughty accent, speaking with heightened vigor and even changed the way he walked. Kyle and Sable The Magnificent were two different mammals. And now, Sable was busy asking for a volunteer from the crowd. This was my cue, the audience was enthralled at this point. I could slip in.

I did, moving passed a large hippo that didn't even notice me. Making my way by several mammals I found a sheep with a heavyset handbag. Which turned out to be open.  
Sometimes this was too easy.

I snuck up, making sure she wasn't aware of my presence before stuffing my paw into it. My ears perked when my claws touched something bulky and hard. Bingo. I pulled out the wallet and opened it, pulling out the wads of cash with lightning speed. After stuffing the wallet back into the handbag I scampered off to find my next target.

A pig. He stood with his arms folded, his kid in front of him. I strolled by him slowly. Throwing my paw into his left jacket pocket, coming out with nothing save lint, I went for the other pocket. A couple of bills was my reward.

The next few mammals I pick-pocketed were all blissfully unaware. I kept a vigilant eye out for any animals watching me, and especially for any in uniform.

I also tried to avoid any rabbits. It was much easier to spot something amiss if you were on the same level as the perpetrator. The larger mammals didn't like looking down to take notice of smaller animals. If they felt something brush passed their leg then they would assume it to merely be the presence of another small animal, probably a rabbit given the number here. Looking down got tiring. In cases of large animals crushing smaller ones, the larger animals always claimed not to have seen the latter. They became to lazy to check where they were walking.

That meant bad news for somebody my size. Not in this case though. I didn't need luck or a significant amount of skill, I just needed the idiots I stole from to be lazy.

One such mammal, a small wolf, was oblivious to my intrusive paws. I got ahold of his wallet and a couple of extra coins he had in his other pocket. Kyle was right about the crowds. There were a lot of mammals to prey on here. But there were also a lot of rabbits to avoid.

I looked up to Kyle again, making sure he was still distracting. He was in the middle of pulling large amounts of cloth out his right hoof. All the tricks I've seen so far weren't new.

Trying to pull it out of him earlier didn't get me anywhere. He wanted to let me see it with everyone else. I gave up and accepted his promise of amazing tricks.

I went back to searching for some more bulging pockets. My own felt pretty taunt with all the cash I was pulling in, I might have actually needed to stop soon. Who was I kidding, it wasn't like I was actually going to stop.

My eyes caught sight of a rabbit beside a hippo. She was moving about, trying to look around the larger mammals and see what was bringing everyone in. Her paws clenched as she was cut off from her path toward the front by a burly cow. The crowd had become pretty dense as I looked around, it was difficult for me to properly see Kyle now.

A thought popped into my head. I glanced back over to the increasingly agitated bunny. Her silver necklace egged me on. The sides of my mouth tugged upwards.

I approached quickly, being sure to make as if I had just entered the crowd from the back. She didn't see me step up to her.

"Excuse me ma'am." I said around my toothpick. Her ear twitched and she turned to face me. I had to stop the frown that threatened to fill my face when she glared at me.

"You having trouble seeing?"

She didn't reply at first, only examining my face and pursing her lips.

"What's going on?"

An accent, she was a country bunny, wouldn't have been able to tell at first glance. She wore a blue button shirt and tights. Her ears also had black tips, unusual for a bunny. Thought I saw those on the rabbit cop, must have been related to her. Not surprising when you had the family the size of an army. I was bound to meet one of them.

"Magic show performed by Zootopia's finest: Sable The Magnificent."

My response caught her off guard. Didn't they have magicians in Bunny Burrows?

"Sable the who?"

"Only the best magician around!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms out emphasis my point. The sudden movement made her take a step backwards. "You're not too late to see his newest tricks, wanna go see?"

Her eyes widened in confusion.  
"Wha- no, I just-"

"Great!" I grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to an opening between several yaks, her body tensed as I shoved her forward. "Let's go, I haven't seen them either."

With a few gentle pushes forward we cut through the crowd and neared the very front. I ignored her protests, they were weak attempts to get out of what was an awkward situation for her. This type of misdirection was always the best. With one last bump I liberated her shiny silver necklace and pocketed it quickly. She was too flustered to feel my paw invade her left pocket and pull out several bills.

We reached the front at last, her protests were silenced as I gestured to Kyle, who was busying himself with blowing balloon animals and passing them to any paws or hooves around. He noticed me and the bunny staring at him. He gave a wink in our direction, causing the doe's ears to perk up along with her eyebrows.

Her nose twitched as she looked over to me. I only responded with a toothy smile, showing my teeth in an attempt to make her more uncomfortable. My smile was genuine though, fueled by her nervous demeanour. I didn't get the opportunity to make other animals squirm this way, so there's no way I was gonna let up.

"Cool, eh?"

Her gaze shifted between me and Kyle, her mouth slightly agape.

"He's... Whe- who told him he could set up here?" Her voice was slightly above a whisper.

"The rogue goes where he pleases, attracting all mammals to share his talents with so they may share their money with him." I said dramatically, looking up Kyle as I spoke.

The bunny frowned, not pleased with the answer.

"That's- that can't be allowed." Her voice was laced with uncertainty. She was trying to shut us down but she didn't know how. I had to quell this before she ran off to the cops.

I gave a curt laugh, maintaining the smile.

"Mayor Bellwether's funds do incredible work, she pulled out all the stops to make the March unforgettable."

She looked on, seemingly surprised by the statement. Her surprise didn't last long as she looked back up at Kyle, a kinder look in her eyes.

"That they do." She agreed. I hid my relief, as long as this kept her away from the police.

"Ladies and gentle-mammals!" Kyles voice sounded out loudly. He proceeded after a moment. "I have done some delving into the deep corners of spell books and have found some untapped magic..." His expression became serious. I rolled my eyes.

"This magic has never been tested by a wizard such as myself- until now!"

His raised hoof shot downwards into backpack, where he took out a bottle of purple liquid and a stick, which was wrapped in cloth at the top. My eyes narrowed. This _was_  definitely new.

He showed the crowd the liquid and opened the lid.  
"This will create fire."

My arms stayed in their folded position as I watched him dip the cloth end of the stick in the purple stuff. My attention was purely focused on this new trick. Kyle hadn't ever done anything with fire before, except when he sprayed deodorant over a lighter. The consequences were anything but pleasurable.   
I would of guessed he'd stayed away from fire after then. I mean- after you accidentally set a neighbour's hedge alight, playing with the stuff should be avoided. Now he was incorporating it into his magic. Apprehension built up in my gut.

After sufficient soaking, Kyle pulled the stick out, handling the purple liquid carefully... Very carefully. I felt the need to stop him, whatever he was planning wasn't going be to good.

He gestured to the liquid again and announced: "I will proceed to breathe fire. Take a step back, folks, this is going to be- explosive."

My ears dropped as he pulled the liquid up to his mouth and let it pour into his mouth. He didn't know how to breathe fire. That was something only professionals did.

Seeming satisfied with the amount in his mouth he placed the bottle on the ground and stepped back onto his podium.   
I needed to stop him. It wouldn't take much for him to burst into flames and land up in hospital. How would I explain this to his father?

I shook off the thought and stepped forward, ready to put an end to this. He locked eyes with me and motioned with his head a couple of times. I stared up in confusion before he did a shooing gesture with his free hoof. I got it. Turning to the crowd I raised my voice.

"Alright, take a step back if you don't wanna get your fur set alight!"

My words got an immediate response as he every mammal took two steps back, including the confused rabbit. It was too late to pull him out of this now, he wouldn't listen. I turned to Kyle again and he gave a thumbs up. I proceeded to move back as well. The crowd stared in mild eagerness. The cubs and kits jittery with anticipation as they watched the flame flicker.

Kyle took a deep breath through his nostrils, holding it for a couple of seconds before positioning the flame a distance away from his mouth. Suddenly his entire body jerked forward and a mist of liquid shout out his mouth. It flew for a second before it made contact with the flame.

A loud _whoof_  sounded as the mist caught fire and exploded upwards. The cloud of flames dissipated less than a metre passed the stick. Kyle held it for several moments before the flames disappeared and the stick was lowered. He finished off with a bow.

The crowd quickly erupted in applause, me being the loudest of all. He actually did it without setting himself on fire. I was gonna kick his ass later for not telling me but I allowed myself to relax with relief. He cut it too close sometimes. The rabbit giggled beside me, gaining my attention.

"Don't see many fire breathers around."

Her face was lit up by a smile, relief just as evident on her face. Kyle had more than just me worried.

"Thank you! Thank you everyone for coming!"  
Kyle turned quickly, hopping off the podium and dunking the sticks fire end into a jar of water behind his backpack.

He scrambled to get some of his equipment into his backpack. I approached him quickly, glancing around as the crowd begun to dissolve. Some shared confused looks with each other after Kyles swift farewell. I patted his shoulder.

"You like it?" He glanced over to me, giving a toothy grin.

"Scared the shit outta me, man. But it was impressive. You smell like a gas station now too."

"Good. Was hoping you'd think it was alright. Could you-?"  
He motioned towards the tinsel around his horns.

I responded with a confused shrug.

"Like... Take it off? Cause the cops might catch word."

"What?"

He motioned to his head again. I stepped forward and begun to untangle the glittery plastic, carefully avoiding the sharp tips of his horns.

"Y'see, to do that fire stuff, you got to have a permit- license thing," his arms moved quickly, snatching items and stuffing them erratically into his bag. "And I don't have one of those."

I paused. Looking down at his face.

"...You're a real fuckin' dumbass."

"A fire breathing dumbass now." He grinned.

"Hi- sorry," a voice piped up from behind. It was the bunny. "That was great, really. I didn't get to see all your tricks but that last one was amazing." Her voice was soft, meek.

Kyle looked from her to me quickly. He continued to pack his bag.

"Sable The Magnificent thanks you." He said quickly, not dropping his grin.

"And thank you for coming here to do it, today really did need some lightening up."

"Sure thing."

"Yeah."

 

I looked over my shoulder to see her watching us with interest, twiddling her thumbs over her fingers. Her gaze locked with mine which I quickly broke by looked back to the tinsel. Kyle didn't seem to notice the lone doe staring at us.

After a while I glanced back again, to see her still standing there silently. Her gaze unnerved me so I cleared my throat.  
She took notice of the social cue and spoke hastily.

"What kind of magicians are you?"

Why couldn't she just leave. The longer she hung around, the bigger the chance she might notice her missing necklace or the fact that what Kyle just did was illegal.

"Well, I do... like- all kinds of tricks and that. Card stuff, balloon stuff. I breathe fire now. And my friend here- he makes things disappear." Kyle ended off with a mischievous chuckle.

I tensed.  
My body didn't allow me to turn and glean anything from her. I couldn't look, she would see it in my face and figure it out. I was good at sneaking around without people seeing, I wasn't a skilled liar.

"Oh, you didn't- seem like a magician..." Her reply was mild surprise. No shock or anger. She didn't catch Kyles hint. I nearly audibly sighed.

"Magicians come in all shapes and sizes." Kyle zipped up his pack and stood at his full height, nearly dragging me along with the tinsel on his head. He faced the rabbit, who maintained her fidgeting.

"Thanks though, for coming and watching. Real cool to see folks interested in magic still." His mouth reverted to his trademark smirk. He gave a mock salute and turned to walk in the opposite direction, before bumping into his podium and tripping. After a couple of staggers and stumbles he regained his balance, gave a quick laugh and resumed his brisk walk to the alley.

The rabbit and I watched him until he rounded the corner. I cleared my voice again and turned, eager to get rid of the bunny. She however spoke first.

"Thanks for helping me out. I-" she paused, placing her paw behind her neck and rubbing it nervously. I tensed at the movement. "Yeah, thanks. Are you... staying? For the speeches?"

Was she for real? This felt like some kind of hint. I hoped she didn't think this made us friends. Her hopeful expression made my fears real. Were all bunnies from the country this naïve?  
With all the strength I could muster I parted my mouth into a smile.

"Heh, nah, I.... nope, I've got to help-" I flung my thumb in the direction Kyle went. "Gotta help him— change!"

"Oh," she said quickly, "Oh!" Her ears perked up. I felt my face begin burn up.

At times I wasn't the worst at speaking, I could actually come up with believable excuses. I did it with Becky often enough. But right now, I wished I could just disappear into oblivion. To be swallowed by a dark hole in reality and never have to deal with this particular rabbit ever again.

"Yeah..." I rubbed the back of my neck now too. "Its not like- okay I'm going."  
I turn on my paw and walk away with all the haste I could manage. She stayed in place, ears drooped and eyes filled with confusion.

As I rounded the corner I ran straight into the lanky leg of Kyle, who was leaning against the wall, the biggest shit-eating grin in place.

"Gonna help me undress huh?"

"Fuck you." Was all I said before moving passed him, trying to hide my embarrassment with anger. He laughed lightly as he followed.

I wasn't ever gonna hear the end of this.

 

* * *

 

 

Kyle and I got onto the next train back to Grass street from Savannah Central. It was still early but we didn't want to hang around, especially since most of those mammals were going to find themselves a whole lot poorer. We shared out the money on the ride back, being sure to keep away from prying eyes.

It was a lot of money. A little more than a hundred bucks for each of us. Kyle joked that my magician name should be "Quick-Paw The Money-Maker'. I didn't like it so much.

I held the pile of cash in my paw, unable to figure out exactly what I'd do with it. The possibilities were numerous. I could get a better TV, could maybe stock up on some food, maybe we could put it towards replacing that fucking fridge. But I wasn't too enthusiastic about it. This was a lot of money, I had time to think about it. There was a familiar ribbing at the back of my mind.

I was guilty. I was accustomed to this feeling years ago when I'd first started putting my paws where they didn't belong. I learned quickly that it wouldn't get me anywhere. Money was money. Besides, I was one of the many involved in tamely dishonest work. Others did worse. I'd gotten over it soon afterwards, but I never forgot the feeling. I wasn't a big time crook, I didn't steal televisions or cars, I didn't burgle… I couldn't. There just wasn't enough in me to do any of that. Pocketing other mammals cash had made me feel bad enough. This guilt though, why was it back? Was it because of the large payout I got out of it?

I hated it, the small stack of green in my paw. I wanted to throw it away, or give it to someone who needed it more than me. Anything to ease that bitter feeling.

Becky needed it though.  
She was the only one working in our house. The actions in my previous job were on me. Becky was the breadwinner. She shouldn't be.  
It was supposed to be my job.  
I was desperate to prove that I could make money to help keep us afloat. Consequences aside.

"I'm proud of ya, buddy." Kyles voice broke through my musing.  
I looked up to the seat beside me, where the antelope sat. His face was genuine, his smirk ever present. His good mood seemed to seep into me.

"I'm not the one who breathed fire." I remarked, shoving him slightly.

He let himself get pushed, chuckling good naturedly.  
"I'm serious, Barry. Like- you got the intimidating thing down. You see that buns face!" His expression morphed into something that looked somewhat similar to the rabbits nervous frown.

I felt my mood sour at the mention of her. Not only did I act like an idiot in front of her, I stole from her before doing it. I still had her necklace. I felt like giving it back.

Kyle noticed the shift and quickly ceased his impersonation.

"Y'know....you should talk to females more. You should- I dunno- find yourself a cute stoat sometime, someone to share your grumpiness with and stuff."

I scoffed.  
"Oh yeah? Only when you get a girlfriend you didn't meet using your magic tricks."

He feigned shock.  
"That is the *only* way I know how to impress! Plus- I think the ladies dig it..."

"Like the way they dig your horn decorations?"

"Totally."

I snickered, before we fell back to silence, save for the constant ambience of the moving train against the tracks.

We were mostly alone in the cabin, only a tired looking beaver and a bored tigress shared it with us. I let my head fall back against the plastic seat in an attempt to relax. The guilt still ate away at me. There was nothing for it though. I would have to wait it out.

Minutes passed slowly as I examined the ceiling. There were several blotches of off-white spread across the surface. I could only guess how they got there. Moisture from a hole in the steel roof? Maybe some mammals messed something, maybe a drink. Kids threw all sorts of things around. I focused on one specific blotch which distinguished itself from the others by being dark. Seemed more likely it was moisture that seeped in, but I couldn't help but think it might have been milkshake.

"Hey, Barry."

I responded with a low grunt, too lazy to form words or move my head.

"You okay?"

The concern in his voice alone made me turn toward him. He had his eyes fixed on me in a worrying gaze, his smirk a shadow of its usual humor.  
I blinked, trying to think of an appropriate response but nothing coherent came to mind. I simply said: "Yeah, I'm good."

He nodded slowly, not looking very convinced.

"Was just-- wondering y'know. Cause like, you've been thinking about a lotta serious things lately."

It was my turn to nod slowly.  
He continued.

"And I dunno if I can help or anything but I want you to know if you wanna... vent or anything. Then I'll listen, cause I don't have anything else to do most of the time."

He was sincere. I wished he wasn't.

"I'm alright, Kyle. Things have been... I dunno if chaotic is the right word, but yeah... shit has been heavy around town." I place my arms behind my head and lean back on them in an attempt to seem at ease. "But I'll hold you to that offer."

His small smirk faltered before growing a little larger.

"Totally."

Silence enveloped us again.  
I preferred it to the alternative.  
I didn't mind that Kyle fussed over me sometimes, but it didn't feel right. He was always so carefree and relaxed it felt unnatural for him to worry. I was usually doing that for the both of us.

That's probably why he didn't delve any deeper into the topic. He was inexperienced in these situations. He didn't know where to go from there. It was for the best I supposed.

I resumed my examination of the ceiling's dark marks, soon finding shapes in their sickly tinged outlines. I don't know how long I did this for, because soon I felt my eyelids becoming droopy. Closing them helped me relax. My breathing slowed as I began to journey into unconsciousness. Slowly drifting into darkness and giving in to weariness. Sleep was an amazing thing that had to always be cherished, for it never lasted long enough. That didn't matter though, all that mattered was the back of my eyelids. It was early in the day, but I felt so tired.

"Barry."

I started as I was shoved awake. I blinked, trying to get my eyes to focus. Another shove.

"Alright- alright!"

"We're here." Kyle stood, throwing his backpack onto his back and shifting it into place. The tigress passed by us, making for the now open doors. I pushed myself forward and slid off the plastic seat. Kyle watched as I stretched. My back gave several satisfying pops and clicks before I moved on to my arms. I was surprisingly stiff.

"How long have we been riding?"

"Couple minutes, long enough for you to fall asleep," Kyle gestured to the seat behind me. "And for you to get comfy enough to drool all over my bag." He smirked.

My paw instinctively went to my mouth, only to bring it back dry. Kyle's grin grew wider.

"Jokes," I frowned as he leaned forward to punch me in the arm, "but I got a couple of good pictures on my phone, wanna see them."

My frown grew deeper. He chuckled as we stepped out onto the platform and passed the ticket bay. The lioness wasn't there anymore.

We strolled leisurely down the street, the sound of our footfalls being the only sound. I felt myself falling into a rhythm beside Kyle, making sure I take two steps before he lands one and keeping my eye on his hooves to take note of any changes. Kyle was humming a song again, not one that I recognized. Music was never my forte, not like Kyle, who could play the guitar with relative skill.

It was like most other hobbies like art or woodwork. It just never sat well with me because I wasn't ever any good at it. Probably why Becky said I should take up something creative. Not because I should practice until perfection -or as close to amateur as I could get- but because it'll help me, 'meet new mammals' as she put it.

She wanted me to attach something to my personality that was interesting and fun. I found myself sharing awkward silences with anyone who managed to ask: 'so what do you like to do' or 'tell me a bit about yourself'.  
I ended up giving them something that sounded rehearsed and dreary.

Kyles melody changed into something I did recognize. It was one of Gazelles new hits, came out on her album: 'Try Everything'. Becky told me about it soon after it was dropped. She liked pop. I guessed everyone has their separate tastes. But to me, it seemed like their tastebuds were accustomed to the taste of shit.

I refocused on getting my timing right with Kyles steps. The corner to Dark Dirt came up soon after. We moved into the street in silence until we reached Kyles home. He told me to think about his offer to vent and thanked me for the help. I soon found myself at my front door.

The sun was high over my head, nearly in the center of the sky. The clouds had cleared up a bit, letting in a good deal of sunshine. The temperature had also risen, making me feel stuffy under my hoodie. I made my way into my house, closing the door and locking the deadbolt in place after me. The house was quiet save for the television, which I could hear filter through from the open doorway to the living room. I made my way towards it.

Becky was laying across the couch, dressed in a baggy white shirt and tights. Her fur looked slightly damp, she must have showered. Beside her, on the coffee table, lay the remote, a can of lime Pawrinda and a box of takeout fried crickets. She didn't glance over as I snuck up to the coffee table, my eyes on those crickets. As soon as I reached her field of vision however, she growled, already aware of what I was planning. Her growl was enough to flatten my ears, but not enough to waver me from my goal.

She threw her arm forward, claws aiming to shelter her crickets from my nimble fingers. She was too late though, I had a pawful as I scampered out of her reach, swiftly stuffing the lot into my mouth and snickering.

"Scavenging stoat!"

"Mad mustelid." I shot back, speaking around the crickets.

Becky merely growled again and pulled the fried bugs closer to her.

I gave her a mischievous wink before throwing myself onto the couch perpendicular to hers and the TV. I stripped my hoodie off while chewing the crunchy goodness that was takeouts.

"I got you some, its in the fridge." Becky said while throwing a few crickets into her maw.

Should of known she'd get me some. I mumbled out thanks as I swallowed the stolen treats. Talking about treats, Mary and Madge's Kitchen for Beginners blinked back onto the TV. Madge stood beside the stove, looking very pleased with herself.

"Welcome back, you're just in time for the raspberry pie."

She made a show of turning off the oven and opening its door. Swiftly placing on oven mitts with patterning that made them look like cupcakes, Madge proceeded to pull the glass dish out with a surprisingly good looking pie nestled inside. Upon settling it onto the counter she threw off the mitts and declared: "now just wait for it to cool down and enjoy."

Her portly face is replaced by a shot of her partner, Mary, who is busy mixing something cream coloured in a small bowl. The echidna looked up the camera expectantly and began explaining the right amounts of herbs to put into the vegetable mix. I felt a yawn coming on.

"Why are we watching this?" I eventually ask.

"Waiting for the news."

Of course. That's all mammals looked forward, or dreaded, to see on TV. Just to see some government official or scientist spew on about how bad things are and that everything should turn out okay soon.

But the news wasn't supposed to be on yet, it was barely past twelve. I gave Becky a questioning look.  
She threw her paw at the TV.

"Bellwether is going to speak at that march... didn't you go?"

I forgot she was going to speak, I guess I was in too much of a hurry to get away from the crowds and— that rabbit. The awkwardness of our interaction left me with hot cheeks and in a slightly peeved mood. I could've handled the situation better.

I wasn't aware that it was going to be broadcast live on television. Shouldn't have been surprised, she was a politician who was doing a public service, of course she wanted everyone who didn't attend to know what she did. I just wondered how ridiculous these next speeches would be.

Becky stared at the echidna on the screen, her gaze relatively blank. She didn't seem chipper like usual. She didn't seem sour either, not with her reaction to my food snatching. Her day must have been tough. Could've been that asshole, Vince. He seemed to damper anybody's mood he came in contact with. I made a note to keep an eye on Becky, just in case her mood went down any further. For now though, I'd try some sly mood lifting.

"Still, I dunno why you're watching this, its not like you take any of their advice in your cooking?"

Her frown was instant.

"Excuse me?"

"Well y'know, you could be less heavy with the salt on your fish— I mean, it does come from the ocean after all."

"You insulting my cooking?"  
She turned her body and steel melting gaze onto me.

"Well..."

Her gaze lingered as she stood up.

"-its not horrible per se, but I think-" I abruptly stopped as I saw a paw shoot towards me. I quickly ducked and scrambled off the couch. She made another go for me, I dodged again. She lumbered after me, chasing me into the hallway.

"We'll see how horrible my cooking is with you in the pot!" Becky shouted as she made another grab for me.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"I bet I'll taste better than your soup!"

Her growling made me speed up. I took the next corner sharply, nearly skidding and slipping on the smooth tiles. We exited the kitchen and ran back through the hallway into the living room. I flashed passed the couch and tried to maneuver around the next, but felt pressure on my tail. I was unceremoniously yanked into the air with a curt yelp. I came face to face with the panting wolverine. Her face distorted by fatigue and success.

"I was joking about your cooking. It's the best, better than anything I've tasted in-"

"Don't even."

I smiled mischievously as she gave her curt warning. Her other paw settled around my abdomen, thankfully taking the strain off my tail.

She seemed to be thinking about her next words. I decided to interject before she came up with some sinister punishment.

"You don't plan on cooking me, do you?"  
My eyes held apprehensive hope in them. I pushed at her paw, trying to get in enough room to snake myself out her grasp.

Becky seemed to consider my words, quickly shaking her head.

"People would notice you missing. Too many questions."

I feigned fear, pulling into myself.

"What do you plan for me then?"

Her maw opened up in a manic grin that made me slightly nervous.

"I'm going to feed you my food everyday until you die." She finished off with a nod, as if she was happy with her decision.

My eyes widened in alarm. I fell limp in her grasp, my back arching as I threw my paws over my face.

" _No_! Anything beside this -- _torture!_ "

Her manic grin broadened at my display.

"Please! I beg you to reconsider!"

I flung my upper body around in an attempt to flail. She begun to rumble with chuckles.

"I'll take the rack over this, any torture device!"

"Oka- _okay!_  You'd better stop before you actually hurt my feelings."

I abruptly stopped my struggled howls and sat still. She smirked and brought her other paw down on my head, ruffling my head fur. I swatted her paw away with quiet objections.

"For the record, my fish has the perfect amount of salt."

"I admit, your cooking skills are far better than I give you credit for."

She chuckled again.

"Only because I have mom's recipe book."

"Yeah, she was a great cook."

"That you didn't bother to learn from."

"Why would I need to learn to cook with you around?"

She huffed as she reached in to ruffle my fur again.

"Alright! I get it. Can you put me down?"

She quickly leaned over and dropped me gently on the floor. After straightening out my clothes I glance upwards to see Becky still hovering, her expression somewhat distant.

I stare back, trying to glean her emotions. She seemed somewhat pensive now, a nostalgic tinge making its way onto her muzzle.   
Mom's recipe book. She was thinking about when mom gave her her recipe book. My mind fumbled, attempting to find something to distract Becky before her musing turned into contemplation, and before the simple idea turned into thoughts of the past. The two of us handled it in different ways. I always told her she was the emotional one, which wasn't entirely true. She just thought about the old days more often.

"Why you watching the news anyway?" I said quickly.

She turned over to the TV, Mary still hogging some screen time. Becky seemed to forget about it, unsurprisingly. She shrugged.

"Good to be informed."

"Its depressing as hell."

"So is sitting around and conspiricising, at least I'm making an effort to stay in the loop."

I couldn't argue her point. I shrugged and moved passed her and out of the room.

"I hope you got me extra big bugs."

"I know you like 'em big." She answered, I could hear her smile. I chose not to answer, but to dig into my snack- which technically wasn't a snack.

My stomach made a gurgling noise. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until then. All the better to stuff my face with oily treats I supposed. I padded over to the fridge, whereupon I stood in a puddle of frigid liquid ice. After cursing the fridge and yelling at Becky for neglecting its repair, I opened its cream door and laid eyes on the red and white box that held the protein that would sustain me.

I made it back to the living room, drink and takeouts in paw, and threw myself onto the welcoming couch. Becky had already situated herself comfortably onto hers. The cooking show was still on. How long did those shows last? You'd swear that mammals sent in requests to do new dishes all the time, because this show had been airing for over three years- I think. I didn't care.  
It looked like it was coming to a close.

But now the news was up next, with that creepy Judy-T-shirt-March-thing. And Bellwether was gonna be bragging about how much she helped the rabbits plan and fund their unnecessary public march. Why was I watching this anyway? Last time it had put the fear of Savagery in me.

Could be Becky's view on staying knowledgeable instead of ignorant, no matter how much the news irked me. No matter how much I hated the channel for shining light on something I could only describe as a nightmare, I reasoned it was better to know the truth than guess what was actually happening. Like Becky said.  
I also chalked it up to the fact I would be bored out of my mind up in my room by myself. What's the saying?  
Misery likes company?  
I guess the news was my company, just as it was for Becky.

I snuck a peak over my box. Becky was still watching the cooking show, albeit with disinterest. She didn't have that reminiscent look in her eyes anymore. Good. Better not to let her dwell, lest she begins to think too hard. I had to question whether she actually believed in staying knowledgeable or she was just saying that. Why else would she watch the news, she wasn't interested in it before.

She could be worrying like me, about the 'Savage Gene'. I heard that phrase not too long ago in the Rendezvous. Overheard a bunch of pred teenagers talking, perhaps a little too loudly, about recent events. One of them described the apparent randomness of savagery with that phrase. It fit it pretty well, considering that was what more and more animals were thinking lately. After Judy, rabbit cop hero, decided to open her mouth at the conference, scientists have been jumping on the bandwagon and spewing all sorts of similar stories on talk shows and the news. Everybody believed scientists knew what they were talking about. But these scientists were desperate to come up with a solution. These mammals didn't fully understand the implications of what was being said. The public, for once knew better. At least— most of the public, for a while.

Several theories came out about how Savagery worked. Some claimed it was a virus that spread exclusively through predator hosts. Nothing else about the supposed virus was known, it could be airborne, waterborne, could even be in our food. Not many held believed this theory.

Another was that it was a drug, something strong and new that could wipe all humanity out of a mammal in an instant. Oddities had apparently been found within the blood of recently turned savage predators. But that was where the evidence ended. No tangible ideas were put forth about why it only affected predators, or why the predators in question where all in different sides of the social spectrum. Some of these mammals were highly regarded by friends and family, never using any kind of recreational drug before. It didn't add up as to why some savages where once beloved spouses and parents, rolemodels to some and honest friends to others, would suddenly buy a couple bags of hardcore psychedelics and throw what they had away. The police said they'd keep a careful eye out for any new drug. Nothing's come up.

Unsurprisingly. A lot of mammals were avoiding the subject altogether. It made sense, every time that broadcast of the savage weasel comes to mind I can't help but shudder and feel my mood drop. It killed any semblance of happiness someone possessed. There was nothing about it that could be positive.

-Prey don't go savage.-  
The old weasel with the curly moustache popped up, a wily grin on his face. He twirled a claw around his facial fur, a contemplative look in his eye.

'That's not a silver lining.' I quickly answered, feeling my eyes roll.

-Not for you. You're a pred, boy! You remember your place in this new society right?-

'What was my place anyway?'

-At the very bottom of the food chain! A small stoat like you? Getting any respect was difficult enough before, but now with every other mammal on the street thinking you're about to go bonkers...-

'You're not very helpful for someone who I made up.'

-I am your true thoughts visualized.-

'My true thoughts look like a scruffy middle aged weasel?'

-Don't question your subconscious, Barry. You might not like the answers.-

I didn't think I liked talking to my subconscious much, it reminded me too much of my uncle. Minus the moustache, and the manic grin, and the fact that he wasn't a weasel. Haven't actually seen the old coot in forever, should try his number and see if he's still kicking.  
On second thought, I don't think that be such a great idea, didn't exactly leave a pleasant taste on anyone's tongue when we last spoke. Wonder if he's still with aunt Jenny, would be a change of pace to see her again. And God, her lasagne dish, I would literally kill for som-

"Barry?"

I started, moving my eyes to see Becky staring. She was frowning, mid-chew. I gave her a questioning look. She gestured to her mouth. I was about to ask what the problem was, before realizing my mouth was filled with crickets that had nearly fallen out of my gaping maw. I quickly closed it, my cheeks and ears warming in the process. Becky couldn't help but smile, almost chuckling.

"Where'd you even go? Outer space?   
Next time you visit the stars, make sure you've swallowed."  
She laughed.

I looked at my fried crickets, trying to look annoyed despite my embarrassment. She laughed again and proceeded to throw a fried cricket in my direction, it bounced off the armrest of my seat and fell unceremoniously to the floor.

"Lighten up and stop being so gross."

This time I laughed. A quick barking sound which turned into uncontrollable chuckles. It was contagious because Becky soon joined in. We were both sitting on the couch, laughing like idiots.

This is what I- we needed. I felt lighter, almost as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I knew it wasn't permanent, I'm sure Becky knew too, but fuck it— I was gonna ride this out until I couldn't breathe.  
And that's what we did, I laughed until my sides hurt and until Becky nearly threw up.   
When they say laughter is the best medicine, they weren't lying.

All the fools out there that seemed to be laughing at nothing, the guys that you walk passed and go: 'the hell is his deal?' and either try and work out what they're so happy about or find yourself chuckling along with. Those were the happy ones, the truly happy fuckers. Cause when you find something good to laugh at, no matter how small, you find life to be that much better. Everything seems a little less shit, a little more pleasant.  
Until you stop. Sure there's the afterglow, the warmth that circles your gut and drips into your limbs, making you tingle. But that doesn't last either. You'll find euphoria is a valued commodity, valued like gold because like gold, its difficult to come by. Especially in the world we live in. But shit, when you strike gold, you take what you can and you enjoy it.

That's what I was doing, enjoying the goldrush. The afterglow would soon come and go. Then the news would start and all that weight will come crashing back down and we'll start drowning again. There weren't many things I could do to make things better, none that I could think of off my head. That old weasel was right-- I'd better start learning to improvise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Salutations. So chapter 4 was fun to write, I guess. A lot more fun than chapter 5 is going anyways.  
> But yeah, the interesting bits are still coming.  
> So if there are any questions or something, I'd totally be glad to answer. I'm a friendly guy. I promise.


	5. Wonderful Day For Petty Arguments

The amoeba-like form swam above me lazily. The energy to move and even think was stripped away by the calming motions of the fluffy white cloud that swayed slightly in the morning breeze. I aspired to be like it, just floating listlessly through the sky. No weight to hold me down, no need to gather energy for movement when the wind was my transport.

And especially no need for thinking. Clouds didn't have conscious thoughts. They floated around, excreting water every so often to keep itself afloat. It was the ship of the sky, the fluffy white vessel that made its way across the ocean of atmosphere around the globe. Sure it didn't last forever, the wind eventually blew it apart but who could say any boat would never sink. Everything broke and deteriorated. But the beauty of clouds were that from the moisture that condensed and fell to the earth soon served its new purpose, then returned to its place above our heads.

The cycle didn't have a specific time either, it just happened as it did. But the clouds were patient, they didn't mind the wait.

My own sigh caught me off guard. I tensed for a moment, remembering I was actually a tangible being on Earth before relaxing again.  
The view from our back yard wasn't scenic. If by scenic you meant you were looking for an unrealistically breathtaking view of a mountain range or city scape.

The sky never lied, it wasn't a fallacy, just endless blue.

"More beautiful than any ocean view." I whispered silently. It felt like the serenity could be broken by the sound of my voice. Which was strange considering the amount of background sound coming from bustling pedestrians and cars. I wished to be out in the country where the bustling ceased and the noise was completely natural.

There was no way I was going to risk shattering what was a commodity around Downtown.  
Calm.

"What are you doing, Barry?"

I felt my eyes bulge out of their sockets for a moment. My body went cold and my fur went stiff as I scrambled into a sitting position.

The laughter behind me alerted me to who was speaking. Not that I should of been surprised.

"You're still so easy to scare, small stuff."

After turning, I leaned forward and placed my arms over my legs in an attempt to look calm. My heart still beat way too quickly, making sure all the adrenaline was distributed evenly throughout my body. I provided the trickster with a steely glare.

"And you're still immature, pincushion."

She tutted and shook her head in mock disappointment.

"Why do I even try with you anymore, you're such a wet blanket."

I didn't answer, not biting the bait. The porcupine in front of me still waited, just in case I thought of something smart to say. She soon shrugged and gestured over her shoulder toward the open backdoor.

"Your sister's finished, wants you to help dish out to everyone else."

The slightly flattened grass came back up to meet my head. The entirety of the sky reappeared in my vision, but with less magic than a minute ago. She'd ruined that.

"I'm good." I replied, trying to make my voice slick with indifference.

Nothing was said for some time and as I began to think she'd left, Pauline spoke up again. This time I sensed something amidst that smug voice, frustration maybe. Was she getting frustrated this early into the conversation? Must have woke up miffed today. Good, she'll go away sooner.

"I wonder why Becky even bothers trying to include you sometimes." I imagined the punchable face of the porcupine sneer as she placed her hands just above her hips. I heard her quills bristle with the movement.

"I do too," I said quickly, not looking from the sky but instead shifting into a more comfortable position. "Do me a favor and ask her."

She laughed loudly, a bark-like sound that made me want to wince. I didn't, not where she could see me.

"Very bitter today, are we?"

Laughing again, albeit softer, she turned to leave.

"Whatever, small stuff, not like we're missing you're company much."

My teeth grit painfully as I bit back a retort. She'd play on it anyway, use it to make me more angry. No, but this time, I got her frustrated. In record time too. That kept me from snarling and yelling obscenities at her. The door slammed behind Pauline, making my deep frown lighten slightly. I hoped she was pissed, she got what she deserved.

Speaking about pissed, Becky was probably going to make an appearance soon, almost definitely to scold me after Pauline tattled. Miserable porcupine was always trying to make herself look laid back and easygoing. But when the going wasn't so easy she always ran to Becky. I wasn't sure why Becky bothered.

My body deflated as I let out a long breath. Time to go.  
I sat up, getting my paws under me swiftly. Spots raced across my eyes and I took a moment to adjust, swaying slightly with the new feeling of vertigo. How long was I laying here?

Not long enough for Becky's get together to finish. She always tried to get me involved, but I learned from the first two times that it wasn't my scene. The mammals there were either outright hostile, ignorantly condescending or so nice it made me sick. Becky was pro-pred-prey relations, so she set up these get togethers where prey and predators would meet each other and share common interests. Every month was a different topic so every kind of mammal could get involved. Book worms, computers geeks, architectural history maniacs-- those sort of crowds. Pauline was always there, claiming to be 'best pals' with Becky, never admitting she only stayed for the free food.

Becky had arranged this meeting for those interested in campaigning for peace between species, in light of the large amount of protests happening around the city. It was safe to say that most of the visitors inside were predator, prey were probably too scared one of us would go savage during the meeting.

Becky wasn't ever one to become overly disheartened though. The mammals inside saw her becoming stronger and more resistant to the hate circulating lately and looked up to her for that which is why so many of them return. I'd believe it too if I didn't hear her crying in her room sometimes. It wasn't like the first time I found her breaking down, I didn't come to give her comfort most of the time, I knew she wouldn't appreciate it. She was proud of being strong willed and a big sister. She didn't want me to worry about her, so I pretended not to— for her sake.

The soft mixture of voices grew more distant and unintelligible as I made for the back fence. There was nothing but an empty lot behind our house, always overgrown and full of trash. The perfect escape route. I scrambled over the fence and dropped down to the other side, losing myself slightly in the long grass. I waded through it until it became sparse enough to move comfortably through. The street I stepped onto was relatively empty, a couple of teenagers hanging around down the street and several pedestrians a ways up. Oddly calm for a Saturday.

I shrugged off the weird feeling and begun my trek down the street, paws in my pockets. It took a little less than five minutes to turn left at the end of the street and reenter Dark Dirt. It wasn't long before I caught sight of the sable antelope either. He was speaking with mister Turner, the goat who owned the liquor store down the road. I approached quickly, sensing the tense atmosphere.

"-dn't do nothing sketchy, mister Turner."

"She seemed rather interested in— Barry, was looking for you."

They both turned to me. I greeted them and asked what was going on. Kyle answered.

"Apparently we got a fan, some..." He looked to Mister Turner.

"Bunny," He answered. "Came around earlier today asking about you two, seemed to take a real interest in finding you, Barry."

The temperature seemed to drop around me. It couldn't be the same rabbit that I took that necklace from at the march. What were the chances? Good I suppose, since she was the only bunny I ever spoke more than one word to. I stared up at mister Turner for a moment, before looking at Kyle. He shrugged.

"Kyle says you two have been keeping your noses clean, but I'm having my doubts." He narrowed his eyes and I felt myself begin to cower.

"She looked the P.I. type, had a notebook and everything."

"What— she's looking for us?"

"You I think." Kyles says quickly, looking over to the goat who continued to eye me carefully. "You tell her where we live, mister Turner?"

He shook his head and I visibly relaxed.

"No, but that doesn't mean somebody else won't though. Whatever you were doing, it got some attention."

"Thanks, mister Turner."

"Yeah whatever. Keep yourselves out of trouble, she seemed determined, and for Gods sake, come buy a beer or two, I got a business to run."

Kyle chuckled and waved to the departing goat.  
"Will do, Mister Turner."

I watched him cross the street and return to his store. Kyle and I stood in silence for some time. I wasn't sure how long, but I didn't feel like breaking it, I'd wait until he decided to.

He didn't though, instead he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and offered me one. I gladly obliged. He lit mine and then his own. That's where we stood, puffing, waiting for something. I soon hopped onto his low fence, sitting atop it with my left paw keeping me stable. Kyle joined me.

"Heh."

"What's so funny?"

"Of all the mammals to come knocking at our doors, it isn't a big tiger or a hippo or a deer or a sheep or a moose or-"

"Its a rabbit."

"Heh."

"...why the fuck did I go through with this?"

Kyle looked over to me, his brow raised.

"Go through-- you mean the uhh... the march thing."

"Yeah.... was stupid, I felt all weird about it before, but- I still went a step further by snatching her necklace."

"Wait, you- you got extra goods and you didn't share?" Kyles voice was suddenly sharp. I felt a spike of panic, I hadn't told him about it. I was about to open my mouth to explain before he laughed.

"Kidding dude. Chilled."

I felt like punching him.

"Was that— the necklace thing, that got you so down?" I nibbled at the end of my smoke. "...Barry?"

"Ye- yeah. I dunno why I took it. I still have it, it's in my room."

"Dude, you shoulda told me."

"I'm telling you now."

"Yeah— but, sooner. Its been two days."

"Two days isn't that long."  
It was an eternity. Every second dragged by. I put it in the back of my mind after getting off the train, even having some fun with Becky. Then the news came on, and against my better judgement I stayed and watched, believing I was following Becky's advice of 'staying knowledgeable'.

I was glad I wasn't there to see Bellwether. The performance she put on was befit for a politician. She shed a couple of tears, spewed on about what the march was all about, and then hugged two bunnies I assumed were Judy's parents. The cleverly placed jabs at predators made my blood churn, the bitter eulogies from a couple of family members made it boil. Fuck them and their hate. If they thought it was okay to condemn all predators because they lost their shit-talking token bunny to a savage, then fuck them all.

"Y'know, since ya still got it, then we can take it down to the police station and say we picked it up. Buy how do we know they'll get it back to that bunny?"

"It's marked with identification."

I didn't have to think too hard. The words were stuck with me since I opened the locket.

"'To the rays of sunshine gleaming in the burrow. Once a Hopps, always a Hopps,'" My gut wrenched. "I stole from the dead cops family at her funeral."

Kyle stayed silent for a while, contemplating my words.

"Technically— it kinda wasn't a funeral. I mean, at funerals you don't usually have fire breathing magicians."

I laughed, way too hard and nearly ended up falling off of the fence with the sudden movement. Kyle also burst into a fit of giggles.  
I drew in the afterglow of the moment.

"You're a joke sometimes."

"You like my jokes, so you're not any better."

  
"Its not a bad idea-- taking it to the police station. You got to hand it in though, they'll probably think I stole it."

"Precinct one?"

"Yeah."

  
"Let's go."

"Now?"

"Nah not there, I wanna get some sandwiches at the Rendezvous."

I laughed again. It was good knowing a mammal like Kyle.

 

* * *

 

"God, this is the best." I cooed as I sank my fangs into the meaty goodness that was the mealworm sandwich. Kyle visibly paled.

"You mind, carnivore? Trying to eat here?"

I feigned surprise.

"Oh? Sorri, is thes bothrng yu?" I asked around my food, purposely shoving the sandwich his way, flinging bits of sauce in all directions.

He made a disgusted sound as he pulled his sandwich closer, safeguarding it from the sauce being flung about.

"Barry, I swear dude..."

I laughed heartily, more than a little amused at his revulsion. Kyle was a very open minded mammal, a real take-it-as-it-comes kinda guy. But when it came to his diet, that easygoing attitude came to a screeching halt. He was proud to be a grazer, condemning anything that didn't grow on a plant not fit to be put on his plate. I tried to convince him to try some crickets once, and in return I'd eat some salad. He didn't even consider it.

"You do this almost every time, man. Just- stop!"

I obliged, settling down on the curb, taking another bite of my sandwich. He stared at me warily before continuing to consume his. Mammals of all kinds walked across the street, into and out of stores. Barker's Sandwich Stall had a line that ended on the other side of the dead-end.  
It took us a while to get our grub, but lines be damned, Barker knew how to make his sandwiches. Any line was worth the wait.

I couldn't help but notice that, for a Saturday, it wasn't as busy. I voiced my observation.

"I dunno, guess its just a slow day." Kyle didn't seem as perturbed as I did, so I buckled down and threw the last of my sandwich into my maw. Upon burping loudly and stretching I asked: "What now?"

Kyle finished chewing the last of his sandwich and pouted.

"I was thinking— maybe we could— I dunno."

"Nice."

"Wait, I got something. I've never been to your sister's meeting before."

I scoffed.  
"There's no way, we're not doing that."

"We got nothing better to do."

"No, I'm not- Kyle! No!"  
I scrambled to get up and follow the retreating antelope. He was making for the exit to the Rendezvous, a mischievous smile on his face. I caught up quickly.  
"Kyle, stop."

"Not until you come up with something to keep me busy."

"There's nothing to do there beside talk with a bunch of idiots."

"We'll fit right in then, huh?"

"Dude."

He didn't listen though, merely kept on walking. I grumbled angrily and folded my arms. Although unhappy with the new plan, I knew I couldn't convince Kyle to waver from it. It might not actually be that bad this time. All the other times I was alone, perhaps his presence would make things more interesting. And whether I went back now or later, I would still have to deal with Becky. I sighed and trudged alongside Kyle.

 

* * *

 

The kitchen was most likely where Becky would be, busying herself by making food or talking. I motioned to the door on the left, looking to see if Kyle had seen. We walked into the kitchen, he wasn't able to completely clear the door and had his head whip back as his horns caught, just like the front door. The hollow sound alerted the inhabitants of the kitchen.

Becky and a wolf I had never met stood beside the table, a strangely large distance between them. They both wore shocked expressions. I blinked once. Twice.

"Ooooh..." I turned on my paw and grabbed Kyles shirt, pulling him back out of the kitchen (where his horns caught yet again).  
I heard the wolf and Becky talk hurriedly behind me but I was already moving into the living room. Kyle managed to duck under this door and gave me a questioning look. I ignored all the mammals in the room, not caring whether they stared at us. When we reached the table to the side of the room where the food and snacks lay ready, I let go of Kyles shirt.

"Did we just— walk in on yo-"

"My sister making out with a wolf- yeah."

Kyle chuckled and looked around, taking in the atmosphere of the gathering.

"This is a party after all, what you expect?"

I shook my head.  
"This isn't a party, nobody looks like they're having fun."

"Eh, you aren't looking hard enough— this seems fun." He bobbed his head enthusiastically to the ambient rock (which wasn't remotely acceptable as party music) in the background.

"Yeah okay." I say dismissively, grabbing a piece of pastry. I didn't care for the stuff, but all the bugs had been eaten. Kyle helped himself to some of the snacks too, ooing and ahhing at the variety. I made a snarky comment about his never being at any sort of social function. He responded with a loud 'wow' after trying one of the pastries.

"I'm sold. Anytime your sister needs some mammals for a function thing, I'm there."

"Tell her how much you like it and I bet she'll cook for you all the time." I reply, smirking. The smirk disappeared when I saw a porcupine approaching.

"So you decided we mere mortals where worthy of your presence after all, huh?"

"Go sit on your quills." I replied curtly, already turning to the snacks.

"And you brought a friend. What's your name, tall, dark and handsome?"

I rolled my eyes so hard it hurt. Kyle seemed more than happy to reciprocate the gesture.

"Only if a beauty such as yourself tells me her name."

Pauline seemed taken aback and stuttered like a schoolgirl.

"W-well, a gentlemammal too, a pleasant surprise." She glanced in my direction. "Considering your company."

Kyle laughed like it was the funniest joke ever. I had to stuff two pastries in my mouth to keep from sneering.

"I keep all sorts of company, and would be more than uh... accommodating to have you join me."

Not us. Me. I saw where this was going. I get talked into attending a mammal gathering and both my sister and my friend were getting flirtatious. Well, what Becky and that wolf were doing was a little above flirty. I gave one last roll of my eyes before making my way to the exit. Kyle said something but I didn't register it over the distance I put between us. I moved through the hallway and toward the front door, not bothering to confront Becky with that wolf around.

I reached the door and pulled it open. For the second time that day I felt my eyes bulge unnaturally from my head. My stomach turned to mush and fell into my legs, stopping me from moving. The bunny on the other side of the door was just as surprised and actually took a step back, their ears falling behind their back.

A moment passed.  
Another did.  
And another.  
And yet anoth-

"Hi." The bunny, whom I figured was a she, collected themselves first. I rushed to compose myself and still my nerves. This wasn't the same bunny who I took that necklace from on Thursday. She was taller, and had a larger build. Probably an athlete, definitely not that nervous rabbit who was so easy to steer around. Her smile was also larger, less cautious and more carefree... and more forced.

I blinked slowly, forcing my breathing to even out and my tensed-out tail to relax. She was probably just late for the meeting and I startled her when I opened the door. Did she knock, I don't think I heard a knock. She's staring at me, got to say something before she gets wei-

"Hey there." My voice found an unfamiliar baritone sound.

Oh my God kill me.

Her smile faltered slightly and her eyes widened at my half lidded gaze that I simply couldn't wipe off my face. She seemed to consciously put effort into perking up and standing at full height again.

"Hi," she repeated.

"What--" I cleared my throat. "What can I do for you?"

Her eyes widened again. Her purple tinged irises coming into full view yet again. Was that other bunny's eyes this colour, I think I'd remember that.

"I— uh..."

"You here for the..." I gestured behind me. She leaned to the side to get a better look inside. "The uh- the get-together?"

She blinked twice, staring at me with her jaw slightly agape. Was it because I was a predator? I knew from what the Hopps family said on live television that they were almost expecting preds to go savage the entire time. This bunny probably hailed from the same belief system. This was ridiculous. I had to end this now.

"Here— come in." I moved to the side, pushing the door open further, motioning for her to enter.

"O- oh!" She blinked again. Was she that scared? I didn't even need Kyle's toothpick trick to intimidate. I just needed to get the fright of my fucking life. She took quick steps in and I closed the door behind her, she jumped at the sound of the door clicking closed.

"Its to your right, in the living room." I pointed to the entrance.

She gave a quick nod and made her way over and into it. I caught her glancing back my way once before disappearing behind the corner.

"...God."

I huffed as I leaned against the door. The second time you meet a rabbit and you can't control your urge to sound like an idiot. Nice Barry, all the rabbits are going to have a good giggle at the dinner table tonight.

The adrenaline still made me uneasy. That must have been it. Both occasions had me in a panic of some sort. Adrenaline made me do stupid stuff. I needed to work on calming myself sooner rather than later. It was bound to get me in some real trouble one day. It was wearing off though, slowly. I stood straight, eyeing the door. This surprise meeting put me in a different mood. I wasn't so annoyed with Kyle anymore. I was feeling better. I felt.. good. Was a shock to the system all that I needed to feel better? I'll have to take note of that, might be handy later.

I felt so good in fact, that I decided to stroll into the kitchen. Better now than later I supposed. When I walked in though, I found Becky alone by the fridge, scratching around inside it. The table had a large glass bowl with some water in it. Punch? Now?

I jumped up onto the closest chair and pulled myself onto the table to figure out what kind it was. Becky must have heard me because she said: "That was quick, you get ice?"

I hummed in reply. She turned and swore.

"Jesus, Barry. I thought you left."

"Nah, went to the living room to get some grub. Kyle digs your pastries by the way."

She smirked.  
"Guess I'll have to make him some more."

"I warned him, but he was too busy chatting up the pin cushion."

Becky returned to rummaging in the fridge.  
"Hey, be nice. She always comes to my meetings. Wait, you said Kyle was chatting her up?"

"Like she was the last female on Earth. I nearly threw all your snacks up. Guy completely bailed on me."

"At least he's trying to get some action. Can't say the same for you, when are you bringing a cute girl home?"

"Talking about action..." I coughed. "You got something she share?"

Becky hefted out a bundle of mangos, kicking the fridge door closed behind her.

Upon dropping them onto the table she sighed. I went to sit on the side of the table, my legs dangling over the aluminium skirting. She in turn leaned on the table, her head on her arms.

"...His name is Bernard."

"Wonderful name for a wolf."

"Shaddup," she snickered. "He's great, he's just the nicest guy I've met."

"How long you been seeing him?"

"Not long, woulda told you about it then. Maybe... a week?"

"That's a while,"

"No its not."

"Its long enough."

"Well you know now so shut it. And I mean it when I say he's amazing, he makes me so happy, Barry."

I stayed silent, watching her get lost in the space in front of her, a smile forming across her muzzle. She was picturing Bernard.

"And hell, we aren't even official, but its not like that matters."

"You guys looked pretty official, I mean you don't just stick your tongue down some strangers thro-"

"Oh my God! Don't! Let's drop it?"

I shook my head solemnly.  
"Afraid not, brother code dictates I'm supposed to make you relive your most embarrassing moments whenever I feel like it."

"You're a dick sometimes."

"I know that you mean that with love."

She scoffed and straightened, taking a mango and throwing it into the blender beside the kettle. It turned on with a loud whir and sliced the fruit to shreds. After it stopped I chose to speak again.

"There's a rabbit here."

"Oh yeah? When did this rabbit get here?"

"Right now. Looked out of her depth, had to almost drag her in."

"Never had a rabbit over before, she must be a little lost. I'll chat to her later."

"She was real scared though. Like— twitching nose and wide eyes. I think she was afraid of me."

"Well, you're intimidating as hell."

I guffawed loudly. She was quick to defend her point.

"No really! That time you threatened Vince was actually impressive. I got shivers from thinking about it. Look." She lifted her arm to point out her raised fur.

"Yeah, someone that comes up to your thigh is real intimidating when he's wearing nothing but boxers."

"You undersell yourself sometimes, should seriously talk yourself up so I don't need to all the time."

"Yes ma'am."

  
"I don't think she was afraid of you though."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I made this a pred-prey meeting. For predators and prey to hang out and get to know each other. She wouldn't be here if she was afraid of preds."

She had a point. That would be pointless and stupid.

  
"Did you send Bernard to the store?"

"He kinda volunteered to go. He's— shy I guess. Only heard stories of you."

"All the bad ones I presume?"

"You don't exactly walk around kissing kits and helping the elderly across the street."

"Fair point."

"But they weren't bad stories. Like I said— he's just shy. He'll warm up to you eventually."

"Speak of the devil."

The grey wolf that was called Bernard walked in, hesitating slightly by the door before moving forward and placing a bag of ice on the table. He stuck out a paw.

"Name's Bernard Howler, sorry I couldn't introduce myself before."

I considered his expression. He seemed genuine in his apology, I sensed a blush coming from beneath his fur. Was like he got caught by the principal with a girl under the bleachers. Nervous, almost twitchy. I hoped Becky was telling the truth about him warming, this was bound to get on my nerves.

I lifted a paw from the table after a moment and made as if I were going to grab his before quickly moving it so that it pointed toward his face, claws in full view. He flinched.  
I tried to sneer menacingly, but couldn't keep it up for long, his expression was too laughable.

"You make my sister cry, and I'll be under your bed." I let my words sink in before hopping off the table and landing soundly on the floor. He took a step back for me to pass, the confusion still evident on his face.

"Nice to meet you too." I said quickly over my shoulder and strolled as casually as I could out the kitchen. I heard him whispering quickly and harshly to Becky, her voice trying to soothe his distress. Maybe Becky was right, maybe I was intimidating.

I felt no need for to speak to anyone else, and after peeking into the living room I noticed Kyle still standing beside the snack table, Pauline was practically falling over him. This was going to be good shame material whenever she pissed me off. I'd make sure she remembered it.

Upon further inspection I found the room pretty much the same as I'd left it. But someone was missing. The rabbit. I wasn't consciously aware I was searching for her until she didn't show up in my inspection. Don't remember hearing her leave. Maybe she slipped out when Bernard came in. Figures. She didn't seem particularly enthusiastic about being here.

The music had changed to a popular hip hop song that I could never remember the name of. It pulled me out of my stupor.

The backyard. It seemed to beckon me and I was more than happy to follow. I made my way briskly out to the backdoor and pushed it open. The sky had lightened considerably from this morning, the sun in full view, only blocked occasionally by a stray cloud. I hoped the grass I lay on before was still flattened, it was comfortable.

Just then I noticed the other mammal. This time I had my composure instantly under control.

"We just keep bumping into each other."

The rabbit twirled quickly, panic written on her face. She seemed to recognize me and relaxed somewhat. That made me more confident that she wasn't afraid of me. It was just a shock before. And another shock for her now. She'd get over it.

"Oh. It's... only been twice."

"And yet, I still don't know your name."

"You want to know my name?"

"You wanna know mine?"

"I know yours." Her answer was quick. Short. Full of venom. I was slightly taken aback by how her simple words carried so much weight.

"You do?"

"Duke Weaselton."

"... Excuse me?"

"Don't-" she stopped herself abruptly.  
I didn't say anything. She seemed angry, but also fearful, a twitchy nervousness that instantly reminded me of Bernard.

"Just— you met my sister."

"Okay, I don't know what or who you're tal-"

"Don't lie!"

I flinched. Jesus. What was wrong with this girl. After her swift outburst she seemed to pull in on herself again. It seemed to leave a void in the air around us, the sudden retraction of anger. So I filled it with my own.

"Look here, rabbit, I dunno who the fuck you think you are, but I think you should check yourself before screaming at somebody you've seen once!"

"I've seen you more than once."

"Wha- are you— what?"

"I know who you are. I asked around. They told me where you live." Her anger began she show on her face again. The open hostility spurred on my own injection of rage.

"You're the rabbit searching for me?! You've been asking me neighbours questions about me?!"

She crossed her arms. A frown slowly deepening on her face.

"You've got a lot of mammals watching your back— figures."

I could only blabber out incoherent words.

"Now that we're here, I want to ask you some questions."

"Like hell." I answered quickly. She narrowed her eyes, that purpleish tinge now barely visible.

"You don't have a choice, mister Weaselton."

"My name isn't Weaselton! You- got me confused with someone else?"

"Look, we don't have to do this anymore. I know-"

"You obviously know nothing! What, all mustelids look the same to you? My name's Barry Ermineteen!" The anger made my blood boil. This stupid little rabbit was following and harassing me because she got mixed up with her mammals. I was worrying about that damn necklace and some P.I. when it was just an ignorant bunny trying to play detective.

"Congrats! You've caught the wrong mammal."

The expression flickered with confusion before returning to that angry stare.

"You're... not Duke Weaselton?"

"Doesn't look that way, does it."

"Then— where is he?"

"Not all us preds know each other, okay."

Her face fell and she dropped her arms. They hung limply at the side of her body. She was confused, dumbfounded almost. It made me angrier.

"Who the fuck did you ask for info on me?" I couldn't lower my voice, I felt too worked up.

Her eyes flickered up and she dropped out of her musing. Her paws lifted and passed as her arms crossed loosely over her chest. When she didn't answer I pressed.

"Mind telling me? You were stalking me after all."

Her mouth opened to protest before quickly shutting. She hadn't lost that dumbfounded look. She definitely wasn't an investigator.

"A lot of mammals didn't know you personally, just that… you lived around here. So I kept looking and finally found somebody who knew a moose-"

"Vince!" I growled between clenched teeth. My anger was redirected to someone I disliked more than this stupid bunny. He obviously spun all sorts of stories about me, making me out to be exactly what the rabbit was willing to completely eat up. I didn't realize he'd stoop this low though. This was the worst he's done to me. "The conniving, slimy, intestinal worm-"

"So he lied to me?"

I snapped my head up, looking back at the blinking rabbit. She looked rather annoyed herself. She realized she got played by Vince, to harass someone she wasn't after. Maybe I could make this work, I could get her to help me corner that pompous ass. He wouldn't like being on the other end of the trouble he sends my way. Some way, I was going to make Vince regret growing confident and causing shit.

I just had to get on this bunny's good side, make her feel like a victim in this little confrontation. Which might not be so hard judging by her frown.

"Lied through his teeth." My response is quiet and calm.

Her ears couldn't droop any lower, they were flush up against her back. She tightened her arms over her chest, huffing loudly.

"Why didn't I realize…"

"He's smart that way— he's had it out for me for a while, tries to make my life difficult."

"Look, I'm really sorry— mister Erminteen right?" She pulled into herself under my gaze.

I shook my head and waved it off, trying to get this part behind us so I could get this rabbit out my house.  
"Don't worry about it, I can't harbour any hard feelings. I'm curious though, why are you asking for information on a weasel?"

This could be it, I was sure she wasn't looking for the pickpocketer at the march but a small voice in the back of my mind kept nagging at me, reminding me of that other bunny.

This rabbit seemed to visibly relax at my words, almost like my acceptance of her apology meant everything for this situation. She gave a wry smile while glancing down at her feet.

"I— I wanted to find Weaselton so I could question him. He's a criminal that has an important role to play in something big."

This had me intrigued.

"A big part of a story, huh? Are you like- some sort of investigator?"

"Oh! No- no, I'm just an ordinary bunny from Bunny Burrow. Just trying to piece a story together."

Bunny Burrow, she must have been here for the March. She didn't have a country look to her, absolutely no tinge of an accent to be heard.

"You were here for the march then?"

Her newfound smile turned sour. I mentioned the bunny cop's memorial, how'd I think that was gonna go over with another bunny?  
To her credit, she recovered quickly.

"Yeah, had to come for the service if anything. She deserved it." My ears caught her sad tone. It was fragile, like her in that moment.

"The ra- Judy Hopps?"

"Judy didn't deserve to die like that."

"...yeah?"

  
"Sorry! Its just-"

"No! Its alright- I get it."

We fell into silence again. She rubbed her arms slowly and I looked away to stare at some dirt.

"Where you.... like, her friend?"

"Oh, no. I was her sister."

I felt my tail tense out and become rigid. I looked back to her to see her sad smile and big eyes. It made sense, it made so much sense. But I hadn't guessed it from the beginning when I opened the door. I was so worried about her being a P.I. that I didn't consider her being related to the rabbit I took that necklace from. She could of been lying about it all, Duke Weaselton may not even exist. She might just be waiting to catch me slip up so she can throw a theft charge in my direction. Maybe she won't get police involved, she could be doing this with only her family knowing about it. So they could catch me confessing and drag me over to their farm to enact righteous prey justice. They could kill me.

"My manners! I'm sorry," she quickly extended her paw, making me flinch. "My names Carrie Hopps and- well.... I already know yours."

"You're a Hopps...."

She dropped her hand after seeing it wouldn't be shook.

"Yes... Judy really carried the Hopps name, everyone in Zootopia asks us how we were related." She attempted to lighten the mood with a chuckle which quickly fizzled out.

I couldn't control the manic laughter that escaped me. It was barking and obnoxious at first, but slowly morphed into quiet chuckling. Gone was the panic and fear. I had my eyes popping out my head because of misplaced fear. Now I had anger. Bitter hate.

The bunny - who's name was now Carrie - was taken aback by my outburst and looked like she wanted to take a few steps back. I didn't care for her shock or nervousness. She was a Hopps. Judy's sister. She was related to that backwards rabbit that condemned predators at her first and last press conference. Now this rabbit came into my house and falsely accused me of something some weasel did. Fuck whether he was real or not, she couldn't barge in and make me out to be some criminal based on such flimsy evidence— then proceed to laugh it all off and give me her name. Fuck that.  
Fuck her!  
She was a Hopps, a pred hater.

  
"Mr Erminteen?"

"Get out."

"...Wh-"

"Just leave."

I had to stop the satisfaction from her utterly shocked expression from showing on my face.

"You think you can just come along and accuse me of utter nonsensical crap then play it all off! No- just..."

"Wh- wait! I apologized."

"So what? That gonna make everything magically alright? You Hopps' are all the same."

"E-excuse me?"

"All you do is sit around in your little burrow and complain about predators and how horrible they are."

"What are you tr-"

"Your sister should of stayed there too, instead of trying to be something bigger than she could be."

If Carrie's face didn't show complete shock before, it did now.

"...And you said she didn't deserve to die that way..." I laughed meekly, "I couldn't think of anything more ironic."

She withdrew, tensing as if my words were a whip. It made something in me twitch nervously. Remorse? Possibly.  
I couldn't focus on it. It was a little whisper in the cacophony of loud drums that represented my conflicting feelings. I wasn't sure how I felt about this anymore, but rage prevailed. It seemed to work well for the rabbit as well.

" _How dare you._ "

I threw my arms up and let them drop heavily at my sides again, growling as I did it. I meant it as a shrug but it came off passive aggressively. She took it as an indication to continue her rant.

"You don't even know me! You can't just say what you want about my family!"

"Take the blinders off, rabbit! I know what you're family is like, I saw your sister's real colours like I can see yours!" I jabbed a claw in her direction. "You just wanna be like her, just wanna stand out in your ridiculously huge family. Be special like her."

"You're wrong!"

"Oh? Am I? A country bunny coming all the way from the Burrows, first to say your farewells at your sister's memorial before going on a stupid little adventure to prosecute a pred that you think may have something to do with something bigger. Whatever the fuck that means. I'll just go out on a limb and say its something to do with your sister's death. You think there might be something more to it, right?"

I gestured to her. I was only met with that familiar shocked expression and silence. Taking it as a sign, I continue.

"You think something more happened around your sister mauling, so you go and play detective. Already trying to fill her shoes, get into the spotlight and be the new wonder bunny?"

  
"You're wrong."  
It was said with teary eyes and a wavering voice. It was a whisper, nearly getting lost in the wind as it reached my ears. I couldn't restrain the guffaw I let out.

"You're- no, you're wrong."  
Tears were pooling around the bottom of her eyes. She sniffed once, twice, then the streams ran freely down her face fur.

I leaned forward, putting on the stoniest gaze I could manage.

"That's what's sad, you don't even believe your own words. Pathetic."

  
"...You call me pathetic, but you're really the pathetic one here, and I'll prove it."

I narrowed my eyes.

"And I'm going to make sure," she lifted a finger, pointing it at me, "that the whole world knows exactly _how_  pathetic you are."

She moved forward quickly, shoving me out the way to get to the back door. I stumbled out the way, twisting around to face the retreating lagomorph. She stopped, her face hidden by her drooping ears. I saw her take in a shaky breath before continuing through the door and disappearing into the darkness of the house.

I felt a number of things. Dumb, cold, angry, scared, but most prevalent of all: remorse. I did feel bad for what I said. But I meant it, and I wouldn't take any of it back. That's what my mother always told me. 'Always say what you mean and never lie'. I did just that. I said what I felt needed to be said and didn't lie about my feelings. But at what cost?

She hated me, just like I hated her. And that was fine, she could hate me for exposing her family's true colours and telling her she wasn't going to reach her goal. But I had every right to hate her for being so ignorant to how things were.

I looked up to the sky and let out a long breath, shutting my eyes tightly. I just wanted to sit down and forget, to just stare at the clouds like I intended to do. The universe had other plans though, plans in the form of a idiot rabbit. It was fine though. It was over. I would probably never see her again. But that didn't mean I could relax, she seemed serious in her threat. It would be foolish to laugh it all off now that we had parted ways. I would just need to be extra careful, watch my back for any activity. If nothing happened, I would keep looking over my shoulder.

Things would eventually turn out okay. They just needed time. Time to scab over and seal the wound. Kind of like the city. It's wound had yet to scab over. The cut being the rift between species and ideals. It took some time, but it had been healing since pred and prey called a truce. It was healing until mammals like Lionheart and that rabbit, Judy Hopps, picked at the scab and reopened the wound. It would begin to heal again, slowly before being picked at again. Soon it would get dirty and infected. It would fester and rot. The wound would destroy the being. We would destroy our civility and along with it: our humanity.

Morbid thoughts. I wondered what Becky would say if she saw the exchange between me and... what was her name again? Carrie, I think.  
I reckoned Becky wouldn't like Carrie. She didn't like mammals who spoke without consideration.  
Becky wouldn't be too pleased with me either, I could've controlled my temper better. But that was in the past, the damage was done.

She hated me. And I hated her.

I rubbed a paw over my ears and made my way back inside. What had I gotten myself into. Whatever it was though, I needed Kyle to know too. He would know how to handle this. He knew how to handle all the nonsense I caused.

"The day started out so good as well."


	6. Tundra Town Chills

Kyle's eyes were on me again. My teeth grit irritably. He had been giving me that worrisome look for the last half an hour, every time he thought I wasn't paying attention. I noticed though, and it begun to irk me. He probably noticed my annoyance, I hoped he did.

"Kyle." I stated simply. My peripheral noted his ears drooping slightly and his gaze quickly shifting.

"Barry." His answer matched mine in its monotonous nature.

"Quit giving me pity looks."

"They're not pity looks."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah… they're empathy looks," he gestured to the space ahead of us as if it further proved his point. "I'm trying to empathize."

"Well, stop."

"Nah man, you've been real grumpy— like grumpier than usual."

"I'm getting over it."

He huffed and threw his arms into the air dramatically, nearly clipping a passing sheep.

"You're being such a dick, dude."

I sputtered.  
"Me? I'm not being a dick!"

"You totally are, you're just walking around sulking about something kinda dumb. You haven't even told me everything about it and I'm like… you're only friend."

"I have other friends!"

He snorted in amusement, making me open my mouth to continue defending myself but interrupted me before I could get a word out.

"Just tell me what's up, man. If they pissed you off that bad, y'know, I got the perfect revenge equipment."  
He leaned closer, whispering.  
"I still got some fake spiders left from the Brandon's kid's party, if its a prey we-"

" _Thank you_ , Kyle. But there's no need."

He straightened out and huffed again.

"You know I was serious 'bout that offer— on the train."

"Yeah…"

"Cool."

"What are you planning on doing with that necklace?"

My eyes shut painfully tight and I let out a puff of air.

"Let's- let's just not do this," I groaned then added quickly, "please."

Kyle nodded in understanding, letting the subject go. We continued on our way, passing several more early risers- and a couple of nocturnals. It was about five in the morning. Early for me, considering I never left my bed before seven. Kyle had convinced me to go along to a new spot he'd found for his tricks. It was a move out of Downtown and in the direction of Tundra Town. A cold move.

It was frigid out, I had three layers made up of shirts and a hoodie just to keep my body temperature constant. My winter coat hadn't grown in yet. Kyle seemed a little more at ease in this climate, wearing only a baggy jacket and a fuzzy beanie. God knew how.  
He had his backpack with his robe and hat in along with various magic equipment- excluding firesticks, this time I made sure there wouldn't be any fire breathing. He had planned to go and get a new audience, consisting mainly of the larger variety. Not many mammals as small as me frequented Tundra Town's Frigid grove. It was a small space set aside for large mammals, which made it just a regular sized space.

I didn't consider it a park, because for it to be a park it should be appealing and frequented often, or even occasionally, by mammals. This place appeared forgotten, bordering derelict. The snow was piled high and difficult to move through. Not a structure in sight beside the benches littered the area, along with actual litter. It didn't look like a place to bring your kit or to unwind. I didn't know how Kyle was going to draw in a crowd here.

Upon explaining to Kyle why this wasn't a well thought out plan he merely responded with a:  
"Don't stress, its still early."

We trudged through the snow up to the center, where an old concrete bench lay under its own carpet of white. The antelope beside me deftly hopped up onto the seat then onto the tabletop, knocking some snow off the sides. I watched as he surveyed the scene diligently, looking from one end to the next.

I attempted to follow his gaze but I soon lost interest and busied myself by kicking some snow at my paws. It became a task I took more attention to as time passed. I started carving shapes and words into the snow, snickering to myself after drawing inappropriate messages, feeling like a naughty kit again. I quickly swiped my paw across the words, keeping them from ever being viewed. Kyle still seemed to be looking out in search of something.

I didn't feel like asking, I was too cold to feel motivated enough to do anything. My body temperature felt like it had dropped since entering the deep snow of the park. Scrawling messages into the snow probably didn't help.  
Why did I agree to this? Was I that desperate for companionship?  
Hanging out with pin-cushion and Becky might actually have been more eventful, at least they would be making smalltalk— unlike Kyle. I glanced up again. The sable antelope still seemed content at staring at nothing. Completely quiet, just like he had been during the walk here. I sighed loudly, attempting to steal his attention and inform him how cold my tail was getting. He took the bait and looked down.

"In case you were wondering, busy watching."

"Watching what exactly?"

"The park."

I was glad he was at least answering me, albeit sparsely. He was acting strange. Well, stranger than usual. His sudden shift in mood wasn't completely new either. He'd been going in and out of these bouts of silence and pensiveness. I chalked it up to the state of the city and- I admit- my own passive aggressive behavior of late. I wanted nothing but to put it out of mind and continue like normal, for him to continue like normal. But normal seemed like a relative concept lately. Like now- I never realized how much I missed Kyle's jovial disposition or Becky's sisterly scolding. It made me feel weak, like I needed the normalcy to function. That was another hurtle to jump. One I was sure I'd easily clear given enough time. I seemed to have a lot of that lately.

"Kyle, why exactly are we out here? Is there something I'm missing?"

"Naw, we got some company coming over soon.

"Company, huh? Your audience?"

"Yea- I guess, I think they're gonna be around soon. I hope."

"You hope?"

"Patience, my little dude."

I turned with a huff, sending a plume of white mist out my mouth, and frowned. Kyle snickered softly.

"You gonna at least tell me who we're waiting for? I don't wanna get robbed or whatever."

"Nah, he's legit. Just a friend that I met… I think like- five years ago."

"Under what circumstance?"

"The drunkest."

"Kyle..."

"Its cool, Barry, he's just gonna help me out. Then we'll make ourselves all scarce— go and get a burger or somethin'."

"You're shady as fuck sometimes."

"I think you mean 'mysterious'."

I scoffed and turned back to the park, surveying it with more interest now that I knew to expect someone. Who, I wasn't sure, but since Kyle was adamant they were benevolent I wouldn't argue.

It took another twenty minutes before anyone showed. It was in the nick of time too, because I was on the verge of leaving Kyle alone in the snow to find someplace warmer.  
A large figure appeared on the border of the park, clad in a brown coat and fedora. A polar bear the size of a mountain. I couldn't help but feel apprehensive at his approach.

"Abrey, my favourite bear!" Kyle sprung down from the table and sauntered over to meet the ursine. I stayed on place.

"You say that every time you see me, but I am sure I am the only ursine you are acquainted with." His voice was a deep rumble that I felt more than heard. Befitting for someone that large. He wasn't from Zootopia, not with that accent, I couldn't place it though. His appearance didn't match his rough tone however, his easy smile set it apart, fangless and gentle. The fedora and slightly baggy coat looked out of place on him, like he didn't belong in them.

"Which makes you my favourite by default. But hey, I don't think you've met my favourite stoat."

Kyle gestured to me. I couldn't help but stiffen slightly under the polar bear's gaze. This was the biggest predator in Zootopia looking down at one of the smallest, I was lucky I wasn't shaking.

"Barry Ermineteen, best snatcher I know." Kyle said proudly. A little too proudly.  
The bear seemed to consider it for a second before lowering himself and extending a huge paw. I flinched, only barely keeping myself from taking a step back. I recognized the gesture through my panic and grabbed his finger quickly to diffuse any awkwardness that might have arisen, nodding in acknowledgment. He nodded in return, retracting his gigantic paw from my reach and returning to his full height.

"Abrey Frost, a pleasure."

"Pleasures all mine." I surprise myself by how calm I sounded. It also seemed to amuse Abrey, as he chuckled softly, which in his case wasn't quite so soft at all.

"Quite," Abrey smiled enthusiastically. "This is a good change of pace. All the small mammals are so skitterish and fearful, act like I want them for dinner. You make brave friends, Kyle."

Kyle laughed loudly.  
"He learned from the best, Mr Frost."

The bear responded with quiet chuckles.  
"Indeed. I assume I'm here for more than introductions?"

I exchanged glances between the two, intrigued but confused. Kyle nodded quickly and pulled his backpack off and dropped it in the snow with a soft thud.

"Righto- so I've kinda been lookin' for the right stuff for fire breathing."

The bear considered him for a moment.

"You are in need of a fire breathing licence then. I believe I may be able to fulfill this request," he laughed loudly suddenly, causing my to flinch again, less so than before to my credit. "Yes, my friend, I will have it done by morning. Stop by and we can discuss it over some beverages. And please, bring your friend."

He laughed again and pushed his paw forward, grabbing Kyles and shaking it far more roughly than he did with me. His invitation made me uneasy. Not only did I have no idea who this mammals was- and I was fairly sure his last name was fake- I had no idea what his and Kyle's relationship was about. He didn't seem like a bear on the straight and narrow. If he was getting Kyle a licence you would no doubt have to have worked for after a five minute conversation then who knew what else he did. I had no intention to join Kyle in visiting Abrey.

Kyle was laughing now too, completely at ease with his hoof in the bear's vice grip.

"You can bet on it, Mr Frost. Thanks for going out of your way to meet us."

"A pleasure." And with that he tipped his hat in salute and walked off, strolling across the street and around the corner. His pawprints were the only trace he had ever existed.

"What a cool guy."

I glanced up at Kyle, questioningly.

"Ya get it? _Cool_ , hah!"

I wasted no time on my questioning.

"Kyle, what was that about?"

"You were there, Barry."

"You still kept me out the loop."

"Its chilled now though. Hah! _Chilled_ '!"

"Kyle!"

"C'mon, grumpy-face. I'm starving."  
He took several steps back the way we came and stopped, looking to see if I was following.

I grumbled in annoyance and moved to follow him. Satisfied I was coming he continued, as I did with my questions.

"Is that why we came all the way out here? Just for some licence?"

"Well- yeah. And get a bite I guess."

"You said we were gonna do magic."

"We're still doing that, just met up with Abrey first."

We exited the derelict park and made our way back onto the street heading to a busier intersection beside a mall. Hopefully they had something good and cheap, because I was feeling peckish too.

It was a slow, peaceful walk back to the intersection. Frigid grove was quite serene. Not a winter wonderland, but definitely beautiful. The buildings were spaced apart and the streets were devoid of cars. A white layer of snow covered everything and made the morning brighter than it would have been. That along with the biting cold kept me awake. I would never get used to waking up so early in the morning.

We entered the mall and browsed the stores that were open. Most were closed, as they didn't cater to nocturnal mammals. But there was always one or two that were open in the dead of night, in this case the dead of the morning. We made for the nearest restaurant, a small establishment by the name of: 'Cold Cuisine'. And cold it was. They served a number of cold platters that actually didn't taste horrible. Sushi was popular here, a personal favourite of mine as well.

We were two of five patrons in the restaurant and decided to take the furthest seat from the rest. I ordered a number of salmon roses whereas Kyle took to the Greek salad. After getting our meals and digging in, and Kyle mocking my inexperience with chop sticks, we paid the tab and left.

"Where to now?"

"A good question."  
Kyle placed his hooves on his hips and sighed. I watched him patiently.

"I think… and like I think— there's a corner around the there." He pointed towards the intersection ahead of us.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Sweet."

"Yeah."

I nodded and cleared my throat. Catching Kyle's attention to get him to follow. I start of towards the corner he was staring at.

"Well, Sable the Magician has to claim the corner before some other deadbeat does."

Kyle laughed and made after me.

"It's alright, man. I got you and your intimidating thing going on. They'll be runnin' scared."

"You're a riot."

"Nah, I'm an antelope."

We continued on our way again. The relative warmth the mall offered now gone and the frigid sting creeping in through my paws again. Slowly though, I was becoming accustomed to being cold. Was this how all Tundra Town residents feel? They all froze their tails off for a couple of weeks before they stopped caring about being warm? It seemed to be working.

I wasn't sure what street we were on. This wasn't a part of Zootopia I was familiar with. I was hoping that wherever Kyle planned on taking us would be accommodating in terms of shelter. The cool breeze dropped the temperature further through wind chill.

The sun was rising quicker now, making the already light scenery even brighter. More mammals were mulling about, getting their day started. A surprisingly large variety of animals lived here, considering the cold conditions. I saw several sheep, a pig or two, a number of bears and even a fox. Although many might not even live here, they could just be visiting. Tundra Town was big on its markets and fresh produce, it reeled in a couple of customers from other districts. Maybe that was Kyle's ploy. He wanted to do magic here to bring him an audience that was guaranteed to have cash in their wallets, you didn't come to Tundra Town just to see the sights. Well, many actually did. It was surprising I hadn't thought of this before, but I suppose that was just the power of comfortability.

We rounded another corner and made our way further down a backstreet. We were nearing a more suburban area.

"You know where you're going?" I asked incredulously.

"Course, I know these streets like the back of my paw."

"You have hooves."

"Right."

After another five minutes of silent trudging, this snow was thicker than it looked, I was on the verge of complaining about Kyle's poor directional skills and my exhaustion.  
We took a left at a t-junction and I caught sight of a park. It wasn't like the other park, this one actually had a playground, walkways and more than one bench in it. It was surprisingly well-kept, the snow being flat and unobtrusive while the trees decoratively trimmed.

We neared it and as expected, Kyle set his backpack down near the curb.

"This is where you were taking us?"

"Yea. Found it a couple weeks ago. All sorts of animals come around, especially for their kids and stuff."

"You were watching kids, huh?"

"I was checking out a new working spot, like- making sure its legit."

"Yeah, 'kay man," I look around, surveying the scene. It was quiet, nobody was around. "We gonna set up here?"

"I think so, its pretty empty now, but around nine it gets busy."

"Cool." I moved to sit on the curb, but quickly stood upon feeling the concrete's coldness seep through my pants. Kyle was watching a spot around the playground, my guess were the swings, which were swaying ever so slightly in the breeze.

"Looks like you've been here before." I observed.

He chuckled and readjusted his gaze to look elsewhere.

"Nah- found this place when I was out walking. Heard a couple of cubs running around and making a lotta noise. I— it reminded me of when I was still small y'know."

I listened patiently, waiting for him to continue.

"And like, it wasn't only the kids. The shit I used to play on is kinda… almost the same here. It's nice I guess."

"To see something that reminded you of being a kid again?"

"Yeah, yeah! Maybe, man. I dunno. When I saw those swings, I thought: 'shit, my dad used to take me to a park just like this before!'. It was often enough that it became like a tradition. Every Friday afternoon I think. I liked the swings especially, reminded me about how high he used to push me. Felt like if it were a little higher— my horns woulda scraped the sky."

I chuckled along with Kyle this time. I'd heard many stories about Kyles youth, just as he had heard many of mine. A number of his were what he and his father did years ago, including their trips to the park. It was the first time I got some visual to place alongside that information. This park seemed like a pleasant place to bring your child.

"Even after my ma died, he still took me. It felt a little weird cause like- she wasn't around on the park benches watchin' or whatever, but it never felt to different y'know? Like— eh. Just- seeing another park like that is nice. Makes me happy mammals still do these things."

He laughed loudly now, placing his hooves on his knees and shutting his eyes tight. I laughed along, feeling my grip on self-control loosen. We eventually calmed and quietened.  
I stared at the playground together with Kyle, trying to imagine a diminutive sable antelope riding the swings with gusto. It was a sight that threatened to send me into another fit of giggles.

It made me sad in another way. That although Kyle did have a good time, the absence of his mother was always at the back of his mind.  
It didn't dampen my lighthearted mood though; all this laughing had lifted it. Along with my spirits- the taint of guilt were lifted from my shoulders. Not completely, but enough to distract me.

Suddenly a obscure thought popped into my head. I smirked at its randomness and turned to Kyle.

"Hey, how bout we head over there, and you show me if you still have game in your swinging."

"Hah! What, for real?"

"Yeah," I began making my way to the set of swings, closest to the edge of the playground. "I need someone to push me anyway."

He laughed uproariously, loud enough for me to be grateful nobody was around, and started after me.

"You're a riot, man"

"Nah, I'm a stoat."

* * *

"Excuse me! Ma'am! I seem to have lost my lucky coin!"

I watched as Kyle hurried over to an elderly goat, taking her off guard. Stationed behind a bench, I looked on as Sable approached another her. The goat babbled for a moment, not sure how to respond before Kyle explained his outburst. Now's my cue. I move around the bench and onto the sidewalk, sauntering lazily toward the duo, hands in my pockets and a carefree mask covering my muzzle.

"You see, I think you may have it since you look pretty lucky."

The goat stared in perplexity. An eccentric antelope with tinsel in his horns and a baggy wizard cloak asking for a lucky coin. It got tiring seeing that same blank look on their faces, but a small part of it still did amuse me. Kyle tried to remedy her inability to comprehend the situation by shooting his hoof forward behind her left ear. She yelped in surprise and took a step back to get away from the street magician. I swooped in, moving swiftly behind her and reaching into a handbag. I grabbed her entire wallet and pocketed it, making sure to move around her stumbling hooves. I continued in my way down the sidewalk, pretending to ignore the altercation occurring.

"I knew it! You had it all the time!"

Kyle was holding a coin that seemingly appeared from behind the goats ear. She stated at it, frowning deeply. It tool several moments for her to catch onto what occurred. She laughed heartily and spoke animatedly with Kyle, who just nodded alone. I snuck behind a nearby tree to make it look as if I'd moved on.

The wallet was relatively light. At least compared to the others. I unlatched it quickly and rummaged around inside. Upon pulling out several notes and a few loose coins I closed it up and chucked it toward a small bush along with the ones just like it, where it landed with a low crunch in the snow. A peak around the tree confirmed that Kyle was finishing up his improv trick.

The she-goat laughed again and turned to continue her walk, giving one last wave to the antelope. Once she was gone I slunk back out to the curb, finding Kyle waiting for me.

"You're gonna run out of coins if you keep giving them out."

He smiled slyly in response.  
"Not if you keep getting more." I laughed as I dropped another three into his open hoof.

The weather had improved moderately. The sun was out and shining its warm radiation on everything, beating back against the sharp chill of the air. The park had become considerately more busy. Although few mammals lounged around, many others were walking through the park on a morning stroll, on their way to work or for a jog. Kyle and I just had to kick back on the curb and wait for the next arrival. Which we were never short of. We had a collection of wallets filled with an assortment of ID's, credit cards, photos and other memorabilia stashed out under that bush already.

Once we were done collecting for the day, we'd pocket the cash and drop the wallets off where they could be found and taken to the police station, hopefully being returned to the rightful owner. We had no interest in credit cards.

I was glad he asked me to go out with him today, compared to how I felt previously. It was good to get out again. Even if I had missed out on important sleeptime.  
Even if the weather was frigid and the morning hour still early I was still having fun.

The hours were going by surprisingly quickly now. It was probably hitting nine am soon. The park traffic was increasing slowly. Although that meant more wallets, it also meant more danger. We had to start moving soon. I was about to ask Kyle what he thought of travelling to a new corner or even just calling it a day. He stood up abruptly, pulling me along with him.

"I see some small tail coming up. Get ready." I obliged quickly, moving swiftly into the park and rounding back- when I was sure I was out of sight- and coming back around to the sidewalk behind the passerby. Just like before, it took a few moments to ready myself into looking casual as I stepped out and strolled up the sidewalk.

I could see Kyle talking excitedly. Just like every other time. My eyes drifted to the pedestrian and the edges of my mouth turned upwards. A rabbit. Kyle wasn't lying when he said 'small tail'. I hadn't seen a rabbit or an article hare so far today, which shouldn't have been too surprising, Tundra Town wasn't filled to the brim with smaller mammals. Bunnies in the city weren't common in itself, excluding the sudden influx as of late. As I got closer I picked up more details. The rabbit wore a thick blue coat that made them look three times larger than they actually were. A synthetic black beanie with white patterning stretching around the edges and a short multi-coloured scarf which wrapped itself tightly around her neck. Yes, it was cold, but this rabbit seemed to be dressed for a snow storm. Probably not an regular in Tundra Town. Not like I could talk, I nearly never came here.

As I got closer I saw Kyle proceed with the whole coin trick. It didn't work as well on account of the beanie, but the rabbit reacted positively considering Kyle's broad smile. I quickened my pace slightly, realizing I was going to miss the opportunity. As I neared I heard them talk, not quite catching what they said. But the rabbit had a distinct female voice. She had no visible purse or handbag which meant her valuables, including the desired wallet was in that puffy jacket of hers. Typical tourist.

I was close now, I heard her voice clearer and could make out their conversation. She didn't seem to want the coin Kyle was offering, he persisted though. A tinge of recognition sparked somewhere in the back of my mind. I was pretty sure I'd heard this argument before. No, not the argument, but the tone. Unimpressed, irritable with a hint of accusation. De jah vu set in. It fuddled with my focus and made me lose any casualness. I stopped and frowned. Watching the scene in front of me.

Then it hit me hard. Making panic boil up in my innards and turning my blood as cold as the snow around us. I cringed as I realized who the rabbit was. I needed to leave, quickly. If she turned and caught sight of me I could stand to relive the argument we had just a day before. I had no intention of reexperiencing the memory.

I turned to walk in the opposite direction, back into the park to wait for her to leave. Info Kyle afterwards of the situation and tell him to leave any rabbits alone, just to be safe. But from the second I turned I knew it wouldn't work, she'd heard me approaching if the twitches of her flattened ears were anything to go by.

She straightened out and twirled around quickly. Kyle abruptly caught himself mid-sentence as he watched the rabbit turn on me. She stared at me and I stared back at her scornful face helplessly, unable to do a single thing. As the seconds rolled by of uncomfortable silence, Kyle exchanging looks between her and me, her expression changed. It turned into a smug smirk.

"Hello, Mr Ermineteen."  
Her voice dripped with so much venom I could've dissolved in it.

"Carrie Hopps." I said flatly, losing any ability to sound as hateful and angry as her.

"You two…" Kyle trailed off.

"We're well acquainted with each other." Carrie sneered, never letting her gaze waver.  
Kyle answered with a silent: 'oh' and seemed to cringe as well, catching on.

I found my voice again.  
"So, you usually go sightseeing after harassing strangers?"

She scoffed.  
"Only when they get personal. Besides- I'm not sightseeing." With that she folded her arms and put on that annoying smug look again.  
Kyle had been moving slowly around the rabbit and was now beside me. I felt more confident with him by my side. What fueled me in our last encounter was rage, it seemed like all my backup would now come from Kyle.

"Which probably means you're here because of me? You're following me?

Got her. Her ears twitched and her smug look warped into something more unsure.  
She could only become defensive now, deny the accusation and defend her point with some nonsense excuse before heading on her way to prove said point.  
Instead, she lifted herself a little higher and fixed her face.

"Yes, I've been following you."

I hadn't expected her to so openly confess. I had to come up with a different approach.

"Still don't believe me? Still think I'm your weasel?"

"No, I believe you. Just don't think you were sharing the entire picture."

I stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. All the while Kyle kept looking down at me to possibly try and glean my thoughts. He wanted to help, but didn't know what to say. He hadn't met this rabbit and didn't know the circumstances under which we fought.

Taking my silence as a cue to continue, she spoke again.  
"So I followed you, and figured out your little setup," she pointed an accusing finger at me, nearly making contact. "I know you're both criminals and I know you've been stealing mammals hard earned money for the last two hours."

So she had been watching. She must have been following us all day. It was unsettling, knowing this rabbit had been tailing us for hours on end without us realising. It was enough to reinvite my previous panic. I couldn't let it show however and kept my expression as smooth as possible. She didn't stop there though.

"I thought you were the one that could help me from the start, but when I figured I was wrong I felt bad, even after everything you said. But now I see you for what you really are. Despicable, disgusting, low-living an-"

"Look, lady. We don't know what you're talking about." Kyle interjected quickly, following his motto: 'deny, deny, deny'. He had the right idea.

"Oh!" She said loudly, making us both flinch. "Well _I_ do! I know exactly what you two have been doing and I know where the proof lies!"  
She shoved her finger violently in the direction of the bushes where I left all the wallets. I glanced around, becoming worried that some mammal might hear us and interfere.

Kyle made to speak again but was shot down.  
"I know what you two do."

Kyles motto wasn't going to help us now. She was too selfassured and angry to listen to any form of doubt. I had to be as straightforward as she was.

"What's your point?"

She turned to me, releasing Kyle from her glare. Her smug facade returned and I suddenly regretted asking.

"Since we're on the right track, I want your help."

"You.. want our help?"

"I want all your resources and connections. Anything I can use to get the information that I need. So basically your and all your friends' cooperation."

My eyes widened as I looked over to Kyle. He did the same. We stared at each other for a moment before I broke down into laughing, Kyle giggled along. Carrie was confused, exceptionally so. I loved it. She eventually lost her patience when my laughter was beginning to die down.

"Want to explain what's so funny?"

"Wh- hah… Who do you think we are?" I wheezed. She narrowed her eyes. I continued.  
"You think- what, like we're apart of some mafia or gang? That we just have connections to the underworld or something?"  
I nearly laughed again, amused by her twitching nose and the absurdity of the accusation. She labeled us wrong, assuming we were hardened criminals high up on the chain of command. She had no idea we were loners, we did things on our own and out of the way of anything 'bigger'. We weren't criminals, we were petty thieves.

Kyle eventually slapped my arm and made a motion to leave. It was probably the wisest thing to do. I nodded and turned to Carrie to wrap this conversation up.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, cruncher, but we don't fall in with the big boys." With that I turned to leave, glad to have said my say. It wasn't like last time. This time I emerged completely victorious. Devoid of any anger or guilt. She deserved what was coming to her.

"So, you're… by yourselves?" I heard her say. I grinned mischievously. No harm in entertaining her. With a turn I leaned in and nodded slowly, drawing out the moment of befuddlement on her face.

My grin disappeared under mild surprise when her expression turned smug again. I leaned back in the hopes to see how the situation changed.

"Well, since I know you two are alone, you don't have any protection. Two fish in the sea."

"So what?" I inquire.

"Think of me as a bigger fish. I could eat you if I wanted, but I may not, at least not if there's a deal struck."

"Barry." Kyles voice was low. He tried to pull me into leaving.

"Since the I holds the power, I could dictate the conditions of the deal."

I scoffed.  
"What makes you think you're in any position to make deals?"

"Just a couple of videos of you two partaking in some— questionable activities."

I hadn't thought of videos. I didn't chalk her up to being prepared enough to record us. What would she have recorded anyway? _If_ she even had anything, she could be lying. But if she wasn't, what could that mean for Kyle and I?  
One way to find out.

"Videos? Yeah, alright." I tried my best to look disinterested and disbelieving as I moved to turn again.

"You don't have to believe me. I have other ways of getting to my goal. So if you two are incarcerated because the police got ahold of a tip," she shrugged. "Oh well."

My brow furrowed and my teeth gritted. She was playing us the entire time. And the worst part was that I had fallen into the idea I was on superior footing in this conflict. She had the advantage all along. Even though I couldn't prove she had videos, I couldn't not prove it either. I had to think of something quickly.

"You're saying you have videos of us?"

She nodded.

"So what's stopping us from shaking you down now and taking them?"

Kyle looked at me in shocked. We'd never mugged or assaulted someone before. It seemed so much worse than taking their money without them realizing it. I didn't budge from my position though, if it intimidated her we could get her to had them over.

Carries responded by opening her arms out wide and smiling maniacally.

"Shake me down then."

I couldn't help myself from licking my lips nervously. I glanced back up at Kyle who seemed just as perturbed. She called my bluff.

"Try and take them, I'll just get you in for assault too."

I pinched my brow and sighed, angry I had let myself into this situation. It could only get worse from here, she could ask for whatever she wanted from us and we could do nothing about it. My record was clean, but if I were to get caught now, I had no idea what the repercussions would be. Kyle wasn't so lucky. He had been a repeat offender in his teens. From vandalism to being caught with a bags of drugs. Who knows what could happen if he was brought in now, with years worth of money that wasn't his in his pocket.  
She had us by our tails.

"So," she said with finality, "ready to be the little fish?"

I nodded solemnly.

"Great. First order of business. I want you two to put the money you stole back in those wallets and hand them in at the police station."

"I guess we can do that." Kyle said unevenly, fondling his left horn.

"Secondly, I want to find Duke Weaselton. I need your help."

"We said we don't have any connections, I never even heard of the guy." I interjected. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"You're going to have to help me whether you know or you don't."

I grunted, turning my head to the side to look away from her piercing eyes. Kyle shifted uneasily beside me, nervous as hell. We were like two schoolkits who were being scolded by a teacher. This was ridiculous.

"And just to be clear I'm going to set some ground rules," she begun listing off on her paw. "Don't try and run away, I can easily find you again. Don't try and hustle me in any way, I'll figure it out eventually. Don't ask too many questions. If we cooperate efficiently, we get be out of each others fur by the end of today."

"Sure, not like we have a choice, right." I roll my eyes.

"Perfect," she said sweetly. It made me want to throw up. "Go get the wallets and then we can get on the road."

I grumbled as I made my way toward the bushes. I couldn't believe we were listening to her. How did this get so out of hand anyway. I needed to keep a better eye out, not like that be helpful now. However, who knew when someone crazier than this rabbit could show up and blackmail Kyle and I into doing something even worse. I shuddered.  
Kyle treaded along behind me, looking bleak and blank. A glance over my shoulder told me the bunny stayed at a distance, watching us furtively.

"Its gonna be alright, Kyle. I'll get us outta this."

"Nah, Barry. We're done man. She's got us and now we're gonna be whatever she wants us to be. Informants, trackers, distractions, scapegoats. We're fucked."

He was right, we were in trouble. She could keep us on the leash for as long as he wanted. Even if we made her promise to give us the tapes after we helped her, she could just keep them locked away while we did her bidding. She didn't seem like the character that would do that but one never knew. I had underestimated her from the start, an idiotic thing for me to do. I found myself leaning against Kyle's leg and sighing. I had to find a way to turn this in our favor, to fix it so we could leave this rabbit behind us.

One way or another I was going to make her regret blackmailing us. If I couldn't manage revenge, I could just be a hindrance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I don't do it, I want to thank you guys who read, followed, commented and gave me kudos. It's nice to see people may enjoy what you write. Serious, it makes me all warm inside and shit.
> 
> Been busy with finals and other stuff, so the next chapter is gonna be late as well.
> 
> Otherwise, critiscim and feedback is always good. Whether it be in the form of a detailed review or jabs at what I call a story.


	7. Sounds Like A Bad Indie Band

"Your friend didn't sound sure of himself."

I rolled my eyes.  
"He never does, that's just what he sounds like."

She didn't respond. I stole a glance in her direction, catching her gazing out the train window and into the tan sands of Sahara Square. Her eyes were inquisitive and made her seem quite harmless compared to reality. I knew she could change moods in a heartbeat and tried to keep my attitude in check after chatting with Kyle, lest I give her reason to threaten me again. I still couldn't wrap my head around the feeling. I was under her control until she said otherwise. It was degrading, the helplessness of it all, in ways that threatening never could be. For now, however, she was in charge of the situation and what happened. I'd just need to be patient. I closed my eyes and shifted into a more comfortable position, waiting to arrive at the station.

The space behind my eyelids wasn't much brighter than the situation I currently found myself in. And it was only myself, might I add. Kyle had been released after sharing information that both pleased and displeased the rabbit very much. The bunny began throwing accusations around. Considering I had told her that we had no connections to anything bigger than ourselves, I could understand why she was a little upset. I interjected swiftly to ease the situation, and promptly accused Kyle of withholding valuable information.

He became very forthcoming after that, and informed us both of a pig living in Sahara Square that knew just about everybody. The rabbit was skeptical and I was confused, he hadn't told me of this before nor had I any inclination to believe he would need information on anybody. Although considering the run in with that strange polar bear this morning I shouldn't have been surprised. Apparently though, this pig and Kyle went a few years back, both being friends in high school together. He visited the pig, whose name turned out to be Martin, every so often to catch up. I wasn't certain that was the entire story, but Carrie hurried our little talk along. I accepted our new mission with the least amount of enthusiasm possible. Kyle didn't accept it at all. He seized the opportunity to leave. After a short moment of consideration, and loud objections from myself, she agreed to let Kyle off the hook.

And here I sat, sulking like a kit. Wallowing in a brew of anger, frustration and annoyance. I loathed the fact that Kyle left me with the bunny, the same one who threatened us both, so casually. I was sure he would notify somebody -I would probably take help from anybody at this point- to come to my aid and I didn't wish him to be suffering here with me. But the feeling of betrayal was justified, regardless of whether he did this to save his own hide or mine. That— along with Carrie's constant looks of distrust and general presence fueled my sour mood. This growing heat wasn't making things any better. I just hoped Kyle was right about Martin. If he wasn't, we could be in a great deal of trouble.  
My musings were interrupted by the static of the intercom.

"Approaching Aloe avenue station."

Carrie got a slight shock from the sudden noise, as did I. After a moment she looked to me and warily asked:  
"That's the stop?"

I nodded indignantly. She nodded apathetically. We returned to silence. It took a mere fifty-two seconds for the train to slow and soon come to a halt. I counted. We were two of a dozen passengers to exit the cart and enter the humid atmosphere that existed in Sahara Square. And it _was_ hot. I immediately began to shift uncomfortably in my clothing. I still had my long sleeved shirt that protected me (admittedly only somewhat) in Tundra Town. The effects of wearing it were quickly apparent. Luckily, Kyle had taken some form of generosity- surprising considering he abandoned me- and took majority of my warm attire with him. The rabbit kept hers in a backpack she had stowed away behind a tree previous to blackmailing me. I rolled up my sleeves and sighed. The sooner I got this done, the sooner I could get out of this oven.

"Wow!" The bunny beside me started. I looked to her, soon finding myself amused by her face. She was still new to Zootopia and hadn't had the luxury of exploration from what I've seen. This was her first visit to Sahara Square and by the look on her face it was surely the last. She shifted her backpack and slicked her paw over her ears.

"Too hot for you?" I ask, smirking.

"As if you're doing any better." She snapped.

I put up my paws in gesture to the surrounding buildings and streets. She followed the movement and surveyed the sun bleached sandstone buildings, shimmering black tar roads and the surplus of expensive vehicles.

"Welcome to Sahara Square, the place you go to get heatstroke and lose all your money, right this way." I forced enthusiasm into my voice. With a small skip I jumpstarted into a speed walk off the platform and onto the sidewalk, making me flinch in pain at the new burning sensation. She made after me, letting out a small gasp as her paws were also burned by the hot cement. I quickly led us to a tree just outside the sidewalk to recuperate in the shade.

Wasting no time, I looked for landmarks. Kyle said something along the lines of a fancy restaurant being nearby. We had to take that down two side streets past an unassuming dry cleaners, down yet another side street and left up Dune street. Martin's house was the one with the rickety fence, apparently the only one on the street. I hoped we could get there soon, I was already parched.

"Where are we?" I turned to see Carrie looking around incredulously– both at the streets and the passing mammals. She eyed a hulking rhinoceros as it passed.

"Sahara Square, didn't you hear me?"

"Bu-" she began but cut herself off.  
"Alright, where do we have to go?"

I watched the rhinoceros as it lumbered down the sidewalk lazily before crossing the street and entering an apartment building.  
"Not gonna explain, we'll burn up and die before I'm finished."

She huffed but didn't say anything more. I went over the directions again and found them satisfactory. We set off, crossing the street hastily, moving onto the side where the sidewalk was barely shadowed by a building. It was nearing eleven, the sun could only get higher and banish all shade. The humidity alone was choking, I had no idea what prolonged exposure to direct sunlight could do. Today was relatively hot, well- hotter. I wasn't a regular to Sahara Square myself but I never remembered it being this bad. Although, the fact that we went from the coldest district to the hottest district could play a part. It seemed I was fairing better than the lagomorph behind me. She couldn't stop readjusting her backpack and pawing at her collar. Maybe I could make her walk more unpleasant.

"So, cruncher, what's the plan?"

"Don't call me that, and what do you mean?"

"I mean what do you plan on doing with me?"

"What should I do with you?" She replies, her tone smug. I turn around and walk backwards, slowing slightly so she won't trail so far behind.

"Since you're asking, it'd be nice if you just forgot me and my friend and carried on your merry way." I reply, trying to identify any emotion I could exploit. Why, I wasn't sure. I was never attuned to that sort of perception– unlike Kyle. He did the talking for a reason.

"Help me find my lead first, then you can go."

I sighed, turning on my paw to continue forward.

"You say 'help' like I want to do this."

"Your conscious will feel a lot lighter."

"How would you know?"

"I know enough to think you could do with being a good guy for once."

"I'm already a good guy." I place a paw on my chest and pull my snout up. She raises an eyebrow. "No, say what you want, but I'm not a bad guy. You on the other paw... I don't know what kind of lead you're looking for."  
I lean in, shrugging nonchalantly.  
"Who knows what sort of scheme you might have pulled me into."

She gasps.  
"Scheme? This is an investigation. You're the scheming one here. You're saying this to get under my skin."

"I could just be appealing to your conscious."

"You're hilarious."

"The funniest. So?"

"What?"

"What kinda lead are you looking for?"

She folded her arms and scoffed.  
"None of your concern."

"I disagree."

"I don't care."

"Fine." I sighed. "I'll find out eventually anyway."

She doesn't reply. Merely continues to walk with a straight face. Even if she didn't bite the bait now she would have to eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

We turned in on our second side street and I catch sight of the dry cleaners. A strange place to set up a business, in a suburb surrounded by homes. Not a mammal was in sight. Maybe the heat was bad today if all the residents had shut themselves in.

My paws had grown accustomed to the stinging burn of the hot cement, but I still couldn't shake the suffocating presence of the heat. The hot air's presence was felt in my lungs every time I took a breath. My skin prickled, failing to alleviate the high temperature just under it. My body longed for the shade, and even more for a cool refreshment. I'll bum some water off of Martin when we get there. Assuming he was an alright guy.

Pigs were common enough mammal to come across in Zootopia. I never knew any personally, but had spoken to several. They were all civil enough and most of the time, friendly. This Martin character would probably be somewhat eccentric of strange. Kyle just attracted those crowds. Would that make me eccentric or strange? Probably, but that was fine because I was aware of it, and that made all the difference. Martin probably wasn't going to be as intimidating as that polar bear I had the pleasure of meeting this morning. I mean, he's a pig, how intimidating could they be?

On the other hand, he could be a total dick, (an eccentric dick) but I could just be over thinking this. Either way, Kyle made it clear he'd be willing to provide some information at the mention of his name. Smooth-sailing from there. I could plot the clean parting of ways with the rabbit. Maybe a little revenge was in order. Well, perhaps not revenge. If my cards don't turn out the way I'd hope (which if I was honest, I wasn't quite sure how they'd turn out) then I'd put this whole mess behind me and continue with my life, assuming she let me do that. I still wasn't certain of where she kept those files, which left me at the disadvantage. But there was only a disadvantage if whatever crusade this was didn't end today. In hindsight though, I could only provide her with so much information; I was truthful when I explained Kyle and I worked alone. She wouldn't have much use for me soon, if she was looking for information.

We soon found the next turn in and began looking for Dune street. Carrie didn't keep up the permeating silence for long.

"Who was that polar bear?"

I snorted.  
"Stalked us for a while, didja?"

"I wasn't stalking."

"Just following us without our knowledge."

"I _wasn't_ stalking. Again, who was the polar bear?"

I had two options: tell her who he was or lie. Lying required a sound story to back it up, which would have to take a moment of careful consideration and may end up coming back to bite my ass. The truth was quicker and could help me gain some more of her trust, which made manipulation easier. But the truth meant revealing the identity of the massive polar bear, which could spell disaster for her, me and possibly everyone involved (although I was still unsure of 'Marvin Frost'). She could be more inclined to tell the authorities of our activities and would lead to a good deal of questioning. The lie however would require me to be quick on the word. If I slipped up, she'll realise something's amiss. She proved the observant type. But she also proved herself naïve and admittedly impulsive. What would Kyle do?

Honestly, I had no idea what he'd do. He was also quite impulsive and spoke his mind, but never enough to offend or otherwise insult somebody. I was sure I couldn't achieve his level of thinking, considering most mammals I knew either never cared to try conversation again. And if they did, it was to blackmail me.  
No, I had to think what Barry Ermineteen would do. I was supposed to be slippery, conniving and smart. But I wasn't.

"I'll tell you when I trust you." Hearing it aloud didn't have the weight I thought it would have, it had the desired effect though.

"When you trust me?" Carrie made a face.

I nodded in affirmation.  
"I don't trust you, probably more than you don't trust me."

"I trust you about as far as I can kick you, Ermineteen." She scoffed.

"Have you seen your hind paws, they're massive. You can't tell me you don't kick hard."

She harrumphed and fell to silence again. I let the moment of self satisfaction simmer for as long it would allow. It wasn't long before the the rabbit pointed out Dune street. Completely devoid of busy bodied pedestrians or cars. Not a soul in sight between the sandblasted houses. As we strolled down the sidewalk, I noticed a few details that set this part of Sahara Square with the rest of it. Gone were the luxurious buildings and big homes. The sidewalk has probably never been mended since this suburbs construction. The street was worse, filled with several potholes and small mounds of sand along the edges. The houses were majority a dusty brown with sun bleached tiled roofs and sand filled gutters. The lawns weren't well kept, if at all, several homes having overgrown or nonexistent gardens. None looked uninhabited- all seemed to have some sort of life somewhere inside, whether it be cars parked outside or some kits toys laying sparsely across the front. But something about the area seemed dead. I pushed it to the back of my mind and trudged on. I needed to get out of this heat soon.  
Carrie followed, seeming to become nervous. She murmured something unintelligible. I was too hot to care.

About halfway down I caught sight of a fence. A simple rusty chain link leaned forward precariously, looking like it would fall on a passerby at any moment. The grass here was overgrown and yellow. The house's facade was chipped beige filled with a rickety wooden door and a newer looking security gate barring entry, several small windows placed intervals apart filled the space too. This looked like the place. I walked up to the fence, looking to see if the gate was safely accessible. I spotted a speaker phone attached to the left of the gate. The rabbit stood beside, eyeing both the speaker and house suspiciously. She leaned up and pressed the button that declared 'Ring'. She let it go after a second and moved back, staring expectantly

Nothing happened. She pressed it again, this time holding it longer. This wasn't something I'd thought of, the chance he wasn't at home. The rabbit wouldn't like this. She'd start throwing accusations again, and potentially reel me further into this mess. I searched the house for any signs. No car in the driveway, no sign of movement through the closed blinds and no noise whatsoever. This house was as dead as the others in the street.

The bunny huffed and rapidly pounded a finger into the button. If he was here then there was no way he'd not be able to hear that. Unless it was broken, then he wouldn't even be aware we were here. Shit, he may be completely aware that we're here but is just ignoring us. That wasn't probable though, Kyle said mammals cane to him to get information, he'd be used to bunches of strangers showing up at his door. But if dozens of mammals came to his door, his doorbell should work. Unless there was some sort of secret password that Kyle neglected to mention.  
No, I was being ridiculous, maybe we were just at the wrong house. There was bound to be another house with a fence around here.

" _What!_ "

Both Carrie and I jumped at the sound of the static voice. It took a moment before I realized it originated from the speakerbox. It did work, but it sounded angry.  
The rabbit dared to answer it.

"Are you Martin?"

" _What do you want?_ " Anger was still evident through the speaker, but less so. The voice was unmistakingly male, nasally and slurred.

"Some information on a specific mammal."

There was a pause.

" _Your name?"_

"Carrie Hopps. I also have a Barry Ermineteen with me."

Another pause.  
" _You folks have the wrong place, try two houses down._ "

I spoke up quickly.  
"Kyle sent us!"

" _Kyle?_ "

"The sable antelope." The rabbit concluded, speaking with urgency I hadn't heard before.

The static overtone of the speaker went silent. He'd put down the receiver. Carrie realized this too because she went to push the button again. Before she could reach it, the speaker popped back on, the voice sounding more reserved now.

" _Close the gate behind you._ "  
Then it was gone again.

The bunny and I exchanged glances momentarily before I held my paw out.

"Ladies first."

"Too late to start acting like a gentlemammal." She responded flatly as she pushed open the gate.

* * *

I sipped at my litchi juice, trying but failing to drink it slowly. The stuff was disgusting but it was cold, and that made it liquid gold. Martin had eventually unlocked his front door for us. It took some time as he literally hadn't more space for another lock with the amount of them. He was slightly taller than me, with that pale pink skin that- like the street- was was barren and dirty. His voice proved to be more slurred and nasally in person. He sounded drunk, and looked to be wearing a perpetual frown. Not exactly what I expected. His gaze never lingered too long before hopping to the next thing. His movements were slow and deliberate, painfully careful. It made me slightly nervous. How did Kyle become friends with this guy?

He was surprisingly accommodating, given our conversation over the speaker. He welcomed us in, directed us to the kitchen- which was unreasonably big- and offered something to drink, at least after he took a decade to relock his front door. So here the rabbit and I sat, drinking litchi juice and watching our host rummage in the fridge.

I took the moment to look around the kitchen. It had a minimalist feel and was extremely clean, a contrast to the obviously greasy pig. Coffee machine, toaster, microwave, several frames holding food related puns. Beside the usual kitchenware and appliances, the only thing from his kitchen I thought was strange was the large record player on the far end of the counter. I hadn't seen one of those things in years. Not even while growing up did we own one.

"Ten Thousand Howlers."  
Martin took a seat opposite us, placing a plate holding a large sandwich on the table. I blinked in confusion.

"The record player," he rasped, throwing his gaze towards it then back to me. "I didn't answer 'cause I was listening to Ten Thousand Howlers. They're my favorite."

I already felt foolish for jumping to so many conclusions before, now I felt even more so. I nodded in acknowledgement, not bothering to question the record players presence here. Carrie, so very eager to speak, cleared her throat and leant on her arms.

"So, Mister…"

"Martin." The pig said flatly as he took a bite out his sandwich.

"…Martin, thank you for giving us your time and refreshments."

"Hotter than hell out there, couldn't leave you folks without something cold." He said between chews.

"Yes." The rabbit said slowly, seemingly uncertain of how to continue, "but I was hoping we could go onto the reason we're here."

"You're." I corrected quickly. She shot a glare at me. It wasn't like it mattered, but I didn't want Martin to be under the impression the bunny and I were friends.

He seemed to sense the tension. He abruptly dropped his sandwich, reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He expertly threw open the box, pulled out a smoke and lit it.

"Could I?.." I gesture to the pack. He deftly opens it again and offers me one, passing the lighter along with it. The urgency in which I place it between my lips makes me realize how long its been since my last cigarette. The sudden influx of nicotine immediately made my nerves less edgy.

"Thanks." I pass the lighter back.

"So, you wanted something?" His nasally voice pervades the room again.

The rabbit answers.  
"I was hoping you'd know a Duke Weaselton."

Martin grabs his cigarette, parting his lips to allow curls of smoke to tumble out, before grunting.

"Oh yeah, I know him. Jittery guy."

"That's great! I'm looking for him you see, need to ask him a couple questions."

"What kind of questions?"  
Martin's eyes narrowed suspiciously and his gaze focused.  
I saw what he was thinking and interjected quickly.

"She's not a cop, just wants answers from this guy."

Martin turned his eyes on me, his glare along with it.

"Course a cop would say that."

Carrie laughed obnoxiously, pulling in both our attention.

"He's the furthest thing from a cop."

"You're one to talk, _blackmailer_ ." I spat back.

"Believe me, it's for the good and better."

"Yeah? For who? 'Cause I'm not feeling any of your good!" I was sneering now, leaning in closer and exposing my fangs.

She leaned in as well, glaring hotly into my eyesockets.  
"Because you don't deserve it!"

"How can you judge what I deserve and what I don't?"

"Same way you judge which animals you're going to make poorer. Some mammals have to do it for the right."

"Like your sister?"

She recoils. Flinching back like I'd slapped her. That angry glare gone, replaced with shock. It didn't bring me any pleasure like last time, which I had fervently eaten up to feed my ego that eventually caused me to drop my guard and get caught. I learned and I knew I'd crossed the line.

It looked like she was going to answer. But she quickly turned to Martin, who had watched the entire exchange quietly.

"Can you provide me with the whereabouts of Mister Weaselton?"

The pig shook his head solemnly.  
"Afraid not, he's left Zootopia."

Both Carrie's and my eyebrows lift in question.

"From what I've heard, he got himself in a bad spot and got out the city, could be anywhere."

Carrie let her head drop into her paws. Martin and I watched her thoughtlessly. Everything she had worked for up until now had been for nought. This was her best chance at finding the weasel, and it had worked. But now she knew he was beyond her reach. If this Duke had to flee Zootopia because of what he's done, what kind of mammal was he? What kind of investigation was this? Was I wrong about Carrie being an undercover law enforcer? Using me to hunt down a dangerous mammal. This entire thing smelled bad suddenly, reeked of the dirty stench of 'of course there's more going on'. Before I could linger, Martin continued.

"I do know who helped him get out."

Her head snapped back up disturbingly quickly.

"Yes?"

"A sheep by the name of Doug. I don't know much about him– but I hear he's the opposite of friendly."

"This is good!" The rabbit shouted suddenly, ears erect, a rejuvenated smile on her face. "I can work with this. Do you know where I can find him?"

Martin shrugged.  
"Sure, but I doubt he'll talk to you folks."

She urged him on anyway.  
He stood up, killing his smoke in an ashtray and sauntered over to the living room. It left me in silence with Carrie. I tried to focus on what was left of my cigarette but kept stealing glances her way. She wasn't looking at me, seemingly lost in her own world. Her paws tapped rhythmically on the table, her head whipping over to the door every few seconds. This meant a lot. Could the police (perhaps even the person who hired her assuming she was actually a P.I.) want Weaselton badly enough to hunt in outside their jurisdiction? Whatever it was. I was sure she wouldn't tell me at all now, after what I said. I felt guilty after our first confrontation, but it paled in comparison to how I felt now.

-Ah, so the stoat has a conscious after all.-

My brow furrowed considerably at the sound of that familiar voice.

-You're a bit too late to finally care about the repercussions of what you say.-

'Leave me alone.'

-C'mon bucko, you know I can't.-

'Can't I just wipe my subconscious or something, get rid of you?'

-Even your conscious mind thinks that's a stupid idea. But hey, I'm not only the bearer of bad thoughts, kid.-

'You're the bearer of horrible thoughts?'

The weasel raised an eyebrow and pulled at his facial hair.  
-This has something to do with her sister, you know that.–

'Do I though? She could be a cop.'

- _But_ perhaps this is about more than just that alone. Forget the cop thing, think about it, she's barely mentioned Judy, not that she wants to take her place or wants to avenge her or even that she misses her. She's on a mission, true, but not purely based around Judy.-

'Well, if she's a cop, obviously.'

-And if she isn't?-

'Then I still think its a flimsy theory.'

-Because your subconscious thought of it before you did? No, kid, think of it as intuition. You've always wanted some of that, eh?-

'…I don't know…'

The weasel chuckles mirthfully and twirls a claw around his mustache.  
\- We're rooting for you back here, do the right thing.-

'That's not helpful at all.'

"Alright."  
Martin appeared in the doorway and walked slowly over to the table, preoccupied by the papers he shifted between his hooves. Carrie watched him closely, eagerly. Upon dropping heavily into his seat, the pig gave us both a pointed look before pushing one of the papers across the table. The rabbit snatched it before it reached her side and furiously read it.

"Like I said, he probably won't talk to you two."

She ignored him and continued to look over the paper. I pushed back on my chair slightly, catching a glimpse of an address and other undecipherable scribbles. Soon the bunny looked up and smiled enthusiastically at the pig.

"I can't thank you enough, Martin. You've saved me a great deal of trouble."

"Yeah, sure. If he asks, you didn't get that from me."

He stood. We stood.

"How much compensation will you need for this?"

"Don't worry about it, just tell Kyle he'd better haul ass here soon. I need him for some shit."

Carrie nodded, turned and made to leave. That was probably my cue to follow.

"Thanks for the smoke, man." I pointed to the ashtray. He grunted in response as he passed me. I followed him to the front door, where Carrie was rereading the newly acquired information.

As Martin undid the last lock and opened the door, I felt the humidity rush in and burn my lungs. Back into the oven. It somehow didn't seem as foreboding as before.

Carrie suddenly stopped and turned.  
"One more thing," she paused, waiting to see if he would object to another question. Then continued. "Do you anything about Nighthowlers?"

His hooves came to scratch his behind his ear and for the moment he didn't speak.  
"Nighthowlers? Sounds like a shitty indie band."

"The absolute worst." Carrie confirmed before making her way out. As I was about to move to follow her Martin stopped me at the threshold.

"Hang on. The fuck is a 'man'?"

I thought for a moment, frowned and shrugged.

"I dunno."

"Oh."

And with that I left, catching up to the rabbit who had already made her way onto the hot tar. When I reached her, I glanced back, only to see Martin's door already closed- and probably locked up tight.

"This is good." Carrie said suddenly. I shift my gaze to her, only to see her attention focused purely on the paper she grasped with urgency- bordering desperation.  
"One step forward. One step back. Then one step forward again," She utters a pitiful laugh. "At least I'm not losing ground."  
I decided to speak.

"So what now?"

She frowns for a moment, but keeps her eyes on the paper. After a moment of consideration she answered.

"Now, we're done."

My eyes widen with the revelation.  
"You're letting me off?"

An apathetic nod.

"You're gonna find Doug on your own then?"

"I think I've got it handled from here."  
She stops and pulls off her backpack. After digging around in it she pulls out a phone. I watch as Carrie fidgets with the device, pulling out the memory card and gingerly handing it over to me. I grab it, quickly shoving it into my pocket.

"Kyle's off as well?"

Another nod.  
I was surprised. Not only did I believe she might not keep her word, but that the entire experience had concluded so swiftly. I was free of her. She had no hold over me or Kyle anymore. How simple the joy of walking down the street knowing nobody could dictate your actions at the risk of jail time.

If anything, I learned more from this than suffered. Kyle and I had to be on our guard at all times to prevent this from happening again. It probably scared him enough to keep his eyes peeled for awhile and I'll keep note not to underestimate any mammal like I did with Carrie.

It begs another question: could I still consider her a potential undercover P.I. or officer? Everything so far had been to the contrary. There was no legitimate proof of her being involved with the law– besides the trickery that ended with me on a leash, but that could be chalked up to my negligence. She had been misguided when confronting me before getting lucky and bagging Kyle and I, then became quite eager to hear anything on Duke. But not just eager, emotional. It was obvious she had no love for the weasel, but it seemed of utmost importance to her that she find him. It was strange. But I was becoming more sure of myself, she couldn't be anyone of noteworthy rank. I found myself nodding, happy with my deduction. I could brag about how much better I'd become at reading mammals when I reunited with Kyle.

"Thanks, cruncher." I mock salute, grinning now. My mood had skyrocketed in contrast to five minutes earlier.

"If I catch you again, you'll regret it."

I laughed mirthfully, shoving my paws into my pockets and resumed walking.  
"You won't, I'll guarantee you that."

She followed, scoffing along the way.  
We walked side by side for several minutes in silence. The silence was not awkward, it felt more comfortable to any silence we've had before. It didn't feel like we were enemies anymore, now that she had what she wanted she wouldn't be a threat. So it seemed anyway.

My outburst from earlier snaked its way into my mind suddenly. I grimaced slightly from the memory. It wasn't alright for me to have said any of it, yet I did. At least I was feeling guilty, it meant I did have a conscious after all. But now I was feeling doubly regretful, more so than the first time I mentioned her sister and shoved it in her face. I still felt that what I said held some truth, but it wasn't my place to say it. I was a total stranger.  
Sure she threw accusations at me first, but did that justify my response? She was searching for a means to an end. The end was still unknown to me. I'll probably never know. But the least I could do now was a apologize, for me behaviour and for making this tougher than it had to be.

"Carrie."  
I started simply.

She looked over to me, her face emotionless.

"Those things I said at Martin's, I-"

"Leave it." Her sneer gave me pause.  
I frowned.

"Hey, look-"

"Leave it, Ermineteen."

I was surprised to say the least. Here I was trying to apologize and she just cuts me off. Couldn't she even hear me out? I thought she was supposed to be somewhat reasonable. I voiced my shock.

"You don't even wanna he-"

"I don't want to talk about it. There's no reason to."

She didn't even let me finish. I lost the will to reach out again. I doubted she'd hear reason.  
"Shit, fine. Whatever."

Silence ensued and unlike before, it wasn't comfortable. It all changed nothing, I thought that maybe she'd be a little more friendly after seeing I genuinely was sorry for what I said. Carrie probably still saw me as some lowlife thief that's only purpose was to make life difficult for others. In truth, her view was somewhat justified. Not only did I treat her terribly this entire trip, I stole from mammals and half the time didn't let it get me down. That's the only half she saw of me though. The rabbit hadn't seen the side that constantly thought about the necklace I took.

I'd forgotten about it. Well, not about it but about who it belonged to. Another Hopps. A cascade of guilt assaulted me. It was powerful enough to make me wince outwardly. This was why she saw me as no good and thieving. I not only stole money, but possessions of those who most likely didn't deserve it. I was sure that rabbit didn't deserve it. Maybe I could return it through Carrie. She was bound to listen to my apology then. No, that was a stupid idea. She'd condemn me for good, fully believing I was surface deep and sneaky. But did it matter? I didn't have to care what she thought of me. I wanted the necklace off my conscious; to move on with my life not having this annoying silver reminder of the march.

I just had to tell her and give it back. It was simple. It might end in another plethora of insults and name calling but I could handle it. The motivation built up and I steeled myself, prepared for the shocked expression and inevitable onslaught of jabs. My mouth opened and my tongue became to twist around the words.

"Why do you steal?" The question was sudden. The words I was amidst crafting died. I stared at her, mouth agape. She stared back, brow furrowed. I snapped my maw shut and cleared my throat.

"What?"

"W-why do you steal?"

"Why do I steal?"

"Yes."

I licked my lips. This was a question I hadn't prepared for, especially from this rabbit. What were my options? I could lie or tell the truth. But with my avoidance of lying about Mr Frost earlier, why couldn't I just sidestep this question as well. It didn't feel right. Whereas the polar bear had nothing to do with Carrie, the fact that I pick pocketed almost directly affected her. It wasn't like she had the right to know, but what harm would it do? Another question was why it interested her.

"Curious?"

"Kind of, just wondering what the situation is with you and that antelope."

I paused before asking warily.  
"This isn't a trick?"

She raised an eyebrow in question.  
"You're not recording me or anything right now? I mean, how do I know you're not just setting me up again?"

She pondered my question before waving it off.

"I'm not recording you in any way or form," then she added quickly, "promise."

I narrowed my eyes and folded my arms.

"I'm serious. Upon my word."  
There was a sound of sincerity in her voice, but I wasn't sure.

"You could be lying."

She nodded.  
"I could. But if I wanted you on a leash, I could of just kept the videos. I promised to give them to you once I was satisfied, and I did."

"True, but what if you're setting me up with the police? I dunno if they're listening right now."

"I could have gone to them with the videos."

"Maybe you're hoping to get something else incriminating out of me. To put Kyle and I in for longer than a while."

"Wow, you're really paranoid. Forget I asked."

Sighing, I relented.  
"Fine, whatever. I started around four years ago, realized I was good at taking things out of pockets and met Kyle- he was good at distracting since all he does is talk shit. We did our thing and made a lot of cash."

I watched the road ahead of me, barely registering the dry cleaners moving passed us or the intent look on Carries face. Her ears were upright and listening eagerly.

"That's it?"

"The gist of it I guess."

"Why didn't you just get a normal job? It had to be less risky."

"I did," I grunted, "I had a couple and with my last one I thought I'd be stable for a while. Help out with rent and food. No more sneaking and stealing. Got fired though."

"Fired?"

"Yeah, I uhh- I attacked a guy."

There was a pregnant pause. I braved a glance to the side. The rabbit was naturally surprised, confused maybe.

"Attacked?"

"One of the guys that worked in the place with, a beaver. He said some shit and I lost it. Scratched him up bad. Boss put me out of commission for a while, then gave me my last paycheck. Was a generous guy considering. " I rubbed at my eyes, having nothing to do better with my fidgeting paws.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"Is he?.."

"He's fine, still works there. Downtown Bug Burga near Pack Street if you wanna meet him. He'll probably spew all sorts of crap about me."

"You attacked him, I think its justified."

I laughed with little humour.  
"Guess so. Was stupid of me but I got what I deserved. You came and made sure of that."

I noticed her ears droop halfway, her paws clenching suddenly.

"It's not any kind of universal justice."

"Thought that's what you believed in."

"Don't assume someone's values."

"Yeah, whatever."

Silence enveloped us again. I felt worse off for telling her. She seemed worse off for hearing it. Who knew what she thought of me now. I hadn't thought that her question would of led to my employment and the assault case I narrowly missed. It was out in the open now. It didn't matter if she was recording me, the police knew about the incident and I didn't care much about anything else I said.

We trudged along to the train station. The hot sun above our heads and the humidity making us writhe under its influence. The station appeared and we grabbed tickets to our separate destinations. I was heading back home and the rabbit to Meadowlands (she was looking for a sheep after all).  
Separate trains.

I wasn't sure how to bid farewell. She had thrown accusations, blackmailed me and turned my day entirely upside down. She wasn't my enemy, but she wasn't my friend either. That made her an acquaintance, perhaps a dangerous one; one I didn't ever want to meet again.  
She stepped onto the train before turning back to me.

"Thank you Mr Ermineteen. Your help on my investigation has been appreciated."

"Say it like you mean it, cruncher." I replied.

With that I turned and made my way to a bench to await my train. I pulled myself up and slid back into the seat. When I looked back, the doors were closing and the train setting off. I watched as the rabbit who had made my day hell disappear down the tracks.  
I wasn't sure how to feel. Our latest conversation had killed any jovial spirit I acquired with the memory card. But I was glad- she was gone and so were my problems. Kyle owed me for this.

I smiled. Knowing I had Kyle and Becky to go back to. I'd brag all about my horrible little adventure and make Kyle feel bad about abandoning me. Becky would be pissed I got myself into such a stupid situation. I'll deal with it when I get back.

For now I lay back and let out a puff.  
"Thank fuck that's over."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Salutations and good day.
> 
> This chapter took a while to make. Partly because I am the most unmotivated organism on the planet and because finals, what a blast.
> 
> Hopefully this chapter gives a little more perspective on where Carrie is going on this 'investigation'. Or just more plot or something.
> 
> I've gone back to reread some chapters, and have reedited 1 and 2. Didn't change the story in any way, but corrected a couple of typos. Ew.
> 
> Cool. Thanks I guess.


	8. Something Smells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Golly, it's an update!

Becky's voice interrupted the din of the television.  
"Barry, I'm making pancakes!"

I called back in acknowledgement. Her timing was perfect; I was starving. Pancakes for breakfast was way better than Corn Paws, especially when it was Becky's pancakes. She made them the best. She made all our food. From the beginning when we were still new to living alone in the house she volunteered as cook for however long she was needed. Both on the basis of the pleasure she got from creating delectable dishes and my own terrible cooking. It took a week of taking turns making dinner before she realized I wasn't getting better. Thankfully, Becky took the reins and made mealtime something to look forward to. I was then forced to clean the house since she viewed it as an equal chore. Arguing with her over it was pointless so I accepted the sad truth and cleaned occasionally, and occasionally meant sparsely and in the places mammals would look to see dirt. My room received its cleaning less often. I was ashamed.

Forsaking the TV, I slid off the couch and made my way over to the kitchen. I found Becky standing over the stove with a frying pan, already pouring batter into it and filling the kitchen with loud sizzling.

I deftly pulled myself onto a chair and stood waiting. The first one was ready within a minute and was promptly thrown away. The first ones were never any good. Becky soon had another ready and slid it onto the awaiting plate. Wasting no time, I shook cinnamon and sugar sparsely across its surface before rolling it up and taking a huge bite. The hole in my gut already felt less empty.

"Theez are gud, B." I said through the food.

She shot me a smirk before turning back to the food. I ate in silence, provided with several more pancakes which is eagerly gobbled up. On my third one I begin to slow and soon had trouble finishing it.

After forcing the last of it down I slid down into a slouch and began what would be a long food coma. Becky eventually finished off the last of the batter and came to sit down, digging into a stack of her own pancakes.

"So how's whats-his-face?"

"That could mean anyone, Barry." She replied curtly.

"Y'know, your nervous wolf."

"Bernard?"

"Yeah, him."

"What's it to you shorty?" She said with a smirk.

"I'm allowed to be interested, I did say I'd be under his bed if he did something dumb." I answered with a smirk of my own.

"Yeah, that was actually kinda weird. Don't say stuff like that."

"I heard him freaking out. Must have made an impression."

She extended a paw out and held it just above my head, "You're short enough to fit under his bed for sure."

"Har."

"So when are you bringing someone nice home?"

I rolled my eyes. Becky quickly continued.

"I've been waiting for some time now, Mr Erminteen and I am frankly," she pointed her fork at me, "shocked."

"I'm not interested in finding someone to entertain."

"You don't entertain, the TV does." Becky drawled.

Before I could answer, there was an urgent knocking at the door. We looked at one another, her expression conveyed her unpreparedness faster than her lazy shrug. I wasn't expecting anyone either. Becky gestured with her fork after a second.

"Thanks for getting the door, Barry. You're so considerate."

I kept from rolling my eyes as I slid off the chair, too much was probably bad for my vision. I made my way through the kitchen entrance and into the hallway, hobbling up to the door in a futile attempt to keep the copious amounts of pancakes in my gut stable.

"If it's Vince tell him I'm not interested!" Becky called from the kitchen. I was all too happy to oblige and found myself hoping it was the irate moose. As I reached for the handle, several more hurried knocks rattled the door, louder than before. A pause and a grumble later, I grabbed the handle and pulled. The door was only opened partially, I didn't want to risk it being some madmammal asking for cigarettes- I swear, you cave in once and they're always at your door asking for more. Instead, I seem to find myself in a predicament I wish I could forget.

On the welcome mat stood the same bunny that made my yesterday a complete shit-show. Just like the last time I opened my door for her, I was speechless and confused. She, on the other paw, appeared less surprised compared to the first meeting. Not to say she was calm though, if her fidgeting was anything to go by.

I felt like slamming the door in her face. Screaming would have been a better option. Although we had left on relatively good terms at the train station yesterday, by no means had it meant that we were friendly. I was glad everything was over and she was out of my life. But apparently, it wasn't over and she was back in my life. Not if I could help it. I made a move to shut the door, lock it and go back to the table and continue to be teased by Becky. The rabbit caught my intentions and with a panicked exclamation she had me still.

"Please- just wait." Her paws were held up in front of her, still ready to shove open the door if I chose to retreat. I stopped, stupid. Why did I stop?

She continued to stare at me, caution and hope in those lavender eyes I was so used to seeing glare. Is that what gave me pause? The complete absence of anger on her eyes for once. It was definitely a change, just like her entire posture and expression.

"I need to talk to you."

"And what if I don't?" I find myself growling out childishly.

"Just give me a chance," that hopeful gaze again, "please."

I narrowed my eyes, tightening my claws around the edge of the door. My tail was tensed out as I fought with myself. What was making me hesitate so suddenly?

"Barry?" Becky's muffled voice trailed from the kitchen, most likely from pancakes, "who's here?"

I sighed, resigned enough for my ears to fall to my head and my tail to droop.

"You want pancakes?"

* * *

It had taken a little explaining, both on the parts of Carrie and me, but Becky soon got the idea. What I told her last night upon arriving home entailed my entire adventure since the morning. An important detail, the fact that I was blackmailed was left out however. I knew she would get mad, mad that I was foolish enough to end up on a situation like that and mad that I was being a plain fool by staying friends with Kyle.

My story essentially summed up my experience, except the part where I was forced into escorting the rabbit to Sahara Square was replaced with a story depicting me helping a long lost friend. All of the white lies were well intended (Becky quickly reminded me that hell was paved by those very same intentions after hearing the truth) and it was meant not to worry her.

She quietly accepted the story and went to bed. And the only reason she didn't catch on was because Kyle had the sense not to phone her and spill the beans. He had, instead, gone straight back home and paced his living room whilst pulling his horns out. Although he had seemed at relative ease betraying me and leaving me to my doom, he quickly begun to stress which then led to full blown panic and near hysteria. I was fortunate enough to catch him before he notified his 'friends' (God knew what that entailed) that I was kidnapped and in possible danger. After Carrie left on her train, I called his house phone. His overwhelming relief was touching, in a strange sort of way and aggravating in an entirely different way.

I told him to cool off until tomorrow, whereupon I would explain everything. He reluctantly agreed and hung up. The long ride home and even longer conversation with Becky then took place before I promptly fell asleep.

And now, the origin of my discomfort and annoyance sat in an oversized chair at our oversized table eating a pancake. My hopes of awaking to a somewhat good day were dashed as well as my patience for Becky's disapproving gazes. Her eyes kept bouncing between the rabbit and me and I was tiring fast. The entire kitchen was quiet now after I had finished the full, and entirely truthful, explanation. Becky had been angry at first- both at me and Carrie but had stayed her temper and heard us out. I wished she got mad, it would have been better than this.

"You guys are really something." She said with a shake of the head.

"Because?…" the rabbit begun to question.

"Just the way you two bicker. What's your deals?"

"Does it matter?" I interjected quickly. Carrie grimaced, stuffing another bite of pancake into her maw.

"Its almost like you two are in a horribly unhealthy marriage, sitting at the table eating breakfast like normal mammals… but with  _tension_." Becky sighed.

"Don't say dumb shit like that." I grumble.

Carrie just couldn't keep her mouth shut, "I don't know what an 'unhealthy marriage' looks like but doesn't it require knowing the other mammal for more than two days?"

"Parents are still acting like it's their first year of marriage huh?"

"Something like that. Big family just does that I guess," Carrie paused, now looking at me, "what exactly is your family dynamic anyway?"

Becky was about to answer but I snapped, finally at the end of my line of patience, "What exactly did you come here for?"

Carrie didn't seem very taken aback, she seemed to be expecting it, almost counting on it.

"Like I said, we needed to talk."

"Then talk about something relevant." I growled. Becky shot me a disapproving look again.

"Right… I need your help again."

"No." My answer needed no thought, no mulling and no consideration. I wanted nothing to do with this rabbit, and the fact that she was in my kitchen chatting about family life with my sister was almost disturbing. She threatened me last time, forced me to go on that little adventure and although it wasn't as bad as I imagined, I wouldn't want to relive it. She wouldn't get anymore help from me.

"Hang on."

"I think you should leave."

"Barry." Becky deadpanned. I spun to look at her, already throwing my paws up in the air.

"Becky, she threatened to take me to the police!"

"Because you were dumb enough to do your shit in broad daylight, I told you not to get yourself into any trouble."

"You're serious?"

"Just let her finish, if you don't like it then you decide."

Carrie watched our argument silently, without change in expression. It made me that much more apprehensive about accepting her plea for help. The silence between me and Becky wasn't long, because I quickly deflated. The fairness Becky strived for always shone through her words and it was grating how annoyingly correct she was.

My sister and I turned to Carrie, both shooting her quizzical looks. Carrie took a moment to chew and swallow her pancakes before placing her fork on the table.

"I need your help again because I didn't get anything on Doug."

"That's it?" I questioned.

She nodded.

Becky spoke, "Who's Doug?"

"A sheep that she's looking for. Look- can't we just not do this?" I turned my paws upwards in a questioning fashion, "I don't want to help and even if I wanted to, I couldn't do anything else for you."

"You're my only connection to the animals of Zootopia." Carrie said simply, as if that explained everything. It did.

"Make some friends, because I'm not helping." I slid off my chair and stomped to the hallway.

"Barry! Wait."

"Oh, its Barry now. Not Mr Erminteen or scum or pred." I drawled, keeping my stride as I made my way into up the hallway and onto the staircase. I heard her rushing out of the kitchen.

"There's something big going on, but I don't know what!"

I continued up the stairs, trying to keep my expression level.

"Just listen to me!"

My paws reached the top step.

"I'll pay you whatever you want!"

I paused. My entire body tensed up as a new surge of anger rolled through me. My lips curled and my ears flattened.

"You see, cruncher," I said over my shoulder, "that's what I don't like about your kind. Many prey I've met assume I'm only after money or their children. And here you are- throwing money at me to get me to dance." I was fully turned now, setting an angry glare on her and grimacing as I spoke. It hurt that most of what I said was true. Many prey liked to think small predators were conniving little creatures. But not nearly all the herbivores I've met have had this backward attitude. Sure, they existed, but prey like Kyle also existed. They had their flaws like preds did.

However, prey had a sad predisposition to blame predators for anything negative. They prosecuted us because a number of us sometimes lost control and went insane, so now all of us were a threat and we were to be blamed accordingly. This rabbit wasn't the worst prey I've met, but her opinions on things had to change if she was to get any better. Hence the reason I told her she was like all other prey, small minded and manipulative. She told me she strove for the just way of doing things, if so she'd take what I said personally. I hope she did. My eyes searched for anger or hurt. Instead they found complete hopelessness.

She sniffled, dragging a paw through her ears and shook her head slowly before speaking.

"I'm sorry. For all the stupid things I said about you and thought about you. I just- I know there's something bigger going on and I need to figure it out… for my sister's sake and for mine. I need your help for it though and I only offered the money for any trouble I have and will put you through."

"Good," I said as evenly as I could, "because I want a hundred bucks everyday until we're done, including today."

"Done." She sniffed.

"There's no more bossing around and no more threats."

"None."

"And if we  _do_  manage to crack something open and its all some big conspiracy like you think it is, then you don't do what your sister did at her interview."

A pause. A long contemplative pause that had my stomach in my throat and tears stinging my eyes.

"I'll be fair." Her voice was small, even considering her size. I felt myself let out a breath I wasn't aware I was holding.

"Good. Wait down here, I'm gonna get dressed."

* * *

Both doors shut at relatively the same time. I let out a shaky sigh as I adjusted myself in the seat. We were in Carrie's car, her very small and old car. I hadn't expected her to have a car, hence my surprise when (for the first time in a long time) I opened the front gate and saw her unlock a matte blue hatchback. Even by bunny standards; the thing was small. She waited for me to get in before hopping in herself.

I shot a glance at the rabbit. She sat still, staring through the windshield at nothing, both paws firmly on the steering wheel. Tear stained blotches under her eyes made me look away. I didn't blame her for crying, but I didn't like it.

"Okay." I broke the silence and braved another look at the rabbit.

She didn't move, but the slow intake of breath led me to believe she was about to speak.

"I think we should… uhmm…"

"Yeah?"

"We should start off with what I know. It'll- it should make things clearer."

"Alright."

"So before Judy was killed, she had been back home for a couple of weeks."

"Why?" I mentally kicked myself for asking. I was already walking on eggshells around this doe, there was no need to make it worse.

She didn't skip a beat though, "She resigned and came back home after the whole… interview thing."

"Oh. Yeah- right, I remember they had a thing about it on the news." I scratch at my muzzle.

"So she was at home, helping around with things and trying to stay busy. Gideon, an old acquittance, came over and mentioned something about Nighthowlers, which set off a bell in Judy's head- according to my parents anyway."

Nighthowlers, it was the same thing she asked Martin about before leaving his house. I never thought much of it at the time, considering I was up to my neck in guilt.

"Judy just said something about wolves and then left. That was the last time my parents saw her." A tinge of melancholy coloured her voice, making me grimace slightly.

"What are Nighthowlers?"

"Flowers," she looked my way for the first time, "more specifically, they're plants that act as insect repellent on the farm. Pretty potent stuff too. We were always told to stay away from it when I was younger and I never knew why. After Judy died and my parents told me about the Gideon-Nighthowler thing I heard that my uncle once ate one of those flowers when he was a kid. He went feral and bit my mom." that morose setting befell the atmosphere in the car again. "It was a matter of piecing it together after that. Somehow the flowers are causing the savagery."

I couldn't help but frown. The entire story was just… unbelievable. Well, not entirely unbelievable, it just hit me out of the blue I wasn't sure how to react.

"Hang on. How come none of the doctors and professors and whatever have thought of this?"

Carrie shrugged.  
"I'm not sure. My guess is that they've all been looking for a gene mutation or something in the food. I mean- it's only been targeting predators. My uncle was a rabbit and he left my mom with scars."

No botanical specialists, no reference to Nighthowlers and no cure.

"A fucking flower…" I placed my paw at my brow. Tears stung my eyes, but unlike before, they begun to dribble down into the fur of my cheeks. I sniffed loudly, rubbing at my eyes.

"A  _fucking_  flower."

"Barry?"

I shook my head, shutting my eyes tight to try and stem the flow. All this time, it had been a flower. I've been sitting inside, petrified I was going to become like that weasel on TV. That at any point, I might just lose my mind and maim, even kill, somebody I knew. And in one fell swoop it was all washed away because the origins of my fear was a flower that scared away bugs.

"Barry?"

"I'm fine. Just- go on."

Carrie paused. I could feel her eyes on me and I willed them away, anywhere but on me.

"Well. After figuring that out, I got suspicious. I went back into all the conversations I had on and off the phone with Judy and did any research I could. I found a text she sent me after her first day in the ZPD. Apparently she caught a weasel with a bag of Middicampus holithicias," she paused dramatically, "Nighthowler. It all just stank, absolutely reeked of something wrong."

When the missing mammals were found by Judy and the whole 'predisposed' idea started floating around, I believed it. Completely ate it up. Then Judy died and I found out more about how it happened, and the more I found out the more angry I got. It made no sense. None of it made sense so I did all that research. Of all the questions I asked and conclusions I came to, Duke Weaselton was the most concrete. So when we came to Zootopia, I set out to find him. Instead, I found you."

Carrie looked to me again. Her own eyes teary. We held the contact for a while, but I broke it when she begun speaking again.

"Then I found out Duke Weaselton is gone and that Doug is the only way forward. I have no other leads besides the Nighthowlers and Doug."

"You have that flower on your farm?" I ask. "Why don't you just take one over to city hall and tell them the story?"

"I tried-in Bunny Burrow. I told the sheriff about it and he just shrugged it off like I was an idiot. Chief Bogo did the same here. I set up a meeting and told him about the Nighthowler and what it does. He asked the same questions you did and told me-" she laughed humorlessly, "he told me that I was just mourning, looking for a way to deal with the loss. In the end I convinced him to at least let the experts know about it. I don't think he did."

"Jesus, Carrie…"

She turned on me in a flash.

"So that's why I came knocking. You're my last hope because now even my family thinks I'm crazy. They're so far into believing that predators are evil, especially foxes… especially that fox, that they ignore me."

"Okay! Okay! Let's just- fuck," I lean back into the seat and let out a breath, "let's just get something more. You're told you don't have enough hard evidence or whatever, so we'll get that. Make it impossible to not believe it. So… fact check. Let's start with the Nighthowler."

Carrie nodded slowly and leaned back into her own seat, beginning to relax.

"You said it was stolen by Duke, right?"

"Yes."

"From where though?"

"A flower store I think."

"Right, flowers. Okay uhmm… yeah I think I know someone."

"You know a florist?"

"Not personally. But I know a guy who knows a florist. Or he's related, I dunno."

"Well, let's go then."

"Alright," I open my door and step out, "down the street." I say as I shut it behind me.

* * *

"He was surprisingly nice." Carrie says as I close the door behind the two of us.

"Only because he knew who you were." I answer confidently.

"He did?"

"Yeah, he told Kyle and I about you actually. Thought we'd gotten into bad enough shit that someone would hire a P.I. to catch us."

"Wait- a P.I.?" A shadow of a smile plays at her face.

I roll my eyes and start walking down the sidewalk back to the car, turning my back on her to hide the smirk creeping onto my face. It was ridiculous now that I looked back. I was filled with paranoia and to a degree, still was. Sinning came with its prices.

"Mr Turner has been busting our asses for years. He always thinks we're up to something."

"He wouldn't be wrong." Carrie caught up quickly.

I continued as if I hadn't heard her, "I think it's because I never buy from his store, he thinks I buy alcohol from the Rendezvous."

"You know the mammals here well?"

"When you live here for over twenty years, neighbours become important."

"Had no idea you lived here for so long."

"Course you didn't. You're not a P.I."

We trudged the rest of the way to the car, whereupon Carrie unlocked it and we hopped in.

"So since I don't have a GPS, you're going to have to direct me."

"It's not far from here," I answered, looking at the slip of paper upon which the goats swirling writing stood, "take a right when you hit Lily ave."

The rabbit started the car and set it into gear before pulling away and beginning our journey. It took about two minutes of directing before we reached the desired road, a completely unacceptable time in my opinion- she drove like an old fart. Another minute of time was used up riding at a sloth's pace to find the right store. Eventually we found it, and I felt foolish for even looking in any other direction. It had a massive sign adorning the front that stated in large bold letters: 'Turner's Flower Heaven'. The facade of the shop was filled with colourful bouquets and plants that made the small area brim with life.

"When he said we couldn't miss it, I thought it would have been more subtle." The rabbit muttered.

"Let's just hope the place is as pleasant as the man who runs it." I return.

We pulled up on the curb beside the store and stepped up. The brightness of the sun seemed to make the flowers even more lively and colourful. I wasn't sure how to feel. This was certainly a heaven for flowers and flower enthusiasts alike, probably an insect magnet too.

I walked up through the lines of flowers up to the door, stepping on the worn doormat that proclaimed, 'Come On In', in slanted letters. We did just that. I pushed open the door and entered, finding the sound of the city din outside absent- replaced with silence. A powerful silence that made me blink in confusion. I looked to Carrie who seemed oblivious to the sudden lack of anything, the room appeared more interesting to her. The smells assaulted my nose just as violently as the lack of sound and made me dizzy.

"How can I help you, dears?" A sickly pleasant voice called from further in the store. The two of us looked between the isles and saw the counter, manned by a smiling goat. We looked at one another before starting down the isle, passing sections of colours and smells. Small yellow flowers I couldn't identify, larger yellow daisies, some yellow roses. The other side held flowers in the red variety and I guessed they were arranged according to colour and placed into sections of type. It occurred to me this was the third time I had ever been in a flower shop. First time with my mother for reasons I couldn't remember, second time to impress a date and the third to get information about a toxic plant that was causing animals to kill one another. At least it was an excuse for my ignorance on the subject of flora.

"Ah, you must be the two my brother said was coming?" The goat spoke again. I was close enough to make out slight graying of her headfur and around her muzzle. Round bags sat beneath her eyes, causing the application of mascara to look tacky. Large loops hung from her ears and barely scrapped by the top of her shoulders. She had a colourful dress that left most of her shoulders and clavicle exposed and wore a friendly smile that spoke of a happy disposition.

"Mr Turner said we were coming?" Carrie questioned as she reached the counter.

"Not in those exact words but yes, he did."

"Miss Turner?" I spoke up. She turned her white teeth to me.

"He tell you why we were coming?"

"To ask some questions." She switched looks between the two of us before folding her arms and leaning on the counter. "Although I'm not sure what an old florist can tell you both."

"We just want to know about a certain plant and its properties," Carrie answered with a disarming smile, which would have been worked if I hadn't known how desperate she was.

"Ask away, dear." Miss Turner returned the smile with one a great deal warmer.

Carrie looked to me, cleared her throat and took out a notepad from her back jeans pocket along with the pen.

"We just want to know about a plant by the name of Midnicampum holicithias."

"My goodness," the goat laughed, "I don't know half the scientific names of the flowers I have dear, you'll have to be more specific."

"Nighthowler," I responded, "a bug repellent to protect produce."

The goat ran her hoof through her beard and hummed.

"Deep blue and about this big?" She illustrated between her hoof and the tabletop.

"That's it."

Turner hummed again.

"I don't sell any here, dear. Can't help you."

"We don't want to buy any, we just want to know about it."

Turner's eyes narrowed and her arms folded again.

"I don't think I can tell you much anyways."

"Miss Turner, anything will help, we just need to know more about it."

"I  _can't_  help you. So if that's all..."

The surprise of the turn in conversation showed on Carrie's face and must have been on mine too. She had to know of something about the Nighthowlers that was sketchy, otherwise she wouldn't be so defensive, but how serious was it and what did she know?

"Miss Turner…" Carrie trailed off.

"Must I repeat myself?" She asked impatiently, a crease growing over her forehead.

"Just a second." I cut Carrie's attempt short. Arguing would get us nowhere but backwards. I had an idea but I wasn't sure if it would work, I'd never done it before. I was wondering about the wisdom of doing it as well.

Carrie watched as I strolled up to the isle we passed, stretched up to take the closest bunch of yellow flowers I could and strolled back. I dropped the bundle on the counter and turned to the rabbit.

"Barry?" Carrie questioned.

I held out a paw, "Your wallet."

"My what?"

"Your wallet, we have to pay for these."

"Use your own money."

"I would but you made me give it back."

She looked like she was going to speak but whatever she was about to argue died before it left her mouth. With an aggravated sigh, Carrie pulled her wallet from her pocket and looked to the goat.  
"How much?"

"Twenty."

As Carrie began unfolding her wallet I darted forward and took it from her grasp. The sudden snatch took her by surprise, allowing me to attain it with little resistance.

"H-hey!"

I turned my back to her to prevent it from being taken back. I quickly opened it and rummaged around, finding photos, an ID, several tickets and finally the money. Pulling out thirty bucks, I slapped it down on the counter and handed back the wallet. Carrie roughly grabbed it with a huff before pocketing it again. Miss Turner took the money, finding the extra amount quickly.

"There's too much."

"I was hoping it would help out with anything else you got for us."

"You're… bribing me?" She raised an eyebrow and folded her hooves across her chest.

I couldn't keep my tongue from running nervously over my lips. Pushing down the urge to stutter I answered, "In a way, I guess so."

I ended off with a shrug and a quick, stupid grin that I immediately dropped after seeing Carries aghast expression. The silence grew tense and the only sound heard was the rabbit's sigh and subsequent facepalm.

"Dear, you're ridiculous," Miss Turner eventually scoffed and slapped the cash back on the table, "keep your money."

"So?.."

"I'm just a bit jittery is all. Zootopia's falling apart and everyone is passing ideas around. Dangerous ones at that, and I'm not just talking about the stories."

"You'll help us? After refusing a poorly made bribe?" Carrie befuddled question broke me from my stupor.

"You two have a certain aspect I've come to recognize lacking in the many," the goat mused before adding, "and my brother sent you here so I suppose trust must be maintained."

"Good enough for me." I shrugged.

The goat sighed slowly before leaning over the counter and clearing her voice.

"Nighthowlers are indeed meant to be used in the protection of produce and that's about as far as its usefulness goes. Its flower contains a toxin, a mean one at that. I wasn't lying when I said I didn't sell any, a license to own it and sell it is required."

"You seem to know quite a bit about a flower you don't sell." Carrie chimed in.

Miss Turner simply chuckled.  
"Dear, you two aren't the only ones asking these questions. There are several florists out there who have considered this."

"So why isn't it being solved?" I asked. "Why are predators still being blamed?"

"If you know the plant well, as some do, you'll know that the affects of the Nighthowler aren't permanent. If we play devils advocate and say that the flower was somehow ingested by the savages, why hasn't it worn off already? They should be their civil selves by now. And not just that, how does more than a dozen mammals, and only predators mind you, ingest this flower in a span of several weeks?"

It didn't add up. Carrie said her uncle, a bunny, had gone savage. Predators were the only ones going crazy out there. If Nighthowler had gotten into the crops or water or something, prey would undoubtedly be going savage as well. That small tingle of light that represented my hope wavered unsteadily and began sputtering.

"What if it's another species of Nighthowler?" Desperation forced the words out my mouth.

The goat pulled on her beard once again.  
"I can't say for sure that more than one species exists. If so, it must have been genetically modified, perhaps to enhance its ability in agricultural use."

Carrie shot me a look.  
"I don't think there is an altered version. At least, my dad never spoke about a better version of it. He's a farmer, he would know."

Hope, once again, begun to die. We were back to square one with no way to tell if predators were really predisposed to be violent. The thought conjured up images of the savage weasel on the news. How quickly it must have happened to take that family by surprise. There wasn't a followup, not as far as I remember, about Mr Shorttail and his recovery. No news seemed worse than bad news.

"No  _commercialized_  version of the plant was created," Miss Turner declared with a raised hoof, "they experiment on plants in laboratories often, this may be a form of Nighthowler most of the populace isn't aware of. The nature of the savages corresponds with any symptoms of Nighthowler ingestion."

"If that was the case, the proper authorities should have been notified about any breach. If the modified Nighthowler got out, surely the guys making it must know."

"Perhaps they are skirting the problem and any repercussions. Being held responsible for something like this is massive."

"So do we know if it's the Nighthowler or not?" I cut off Carrie's counter with an impatient growl.

"We'll never know if we continue to discuss probabilities," the goat answered, "I hope you two have more to rely on than the word of a florist."

"Our next stop was our other lead."

"Are you a private investigator?"

"Why does everyone think that?" Carrie frowned.

I stepped forward and stretched upward to lean on the counter.  
"Thanks for the help. We appreciate it."

"If you call that help, dear."

Carrie leant on the counter as well.  
"Nonetheless, it was helpful. We'd better go."

With that, she begun to make her way down the isle towards the door. I made to follow but was halted by the stern clearing of a throat. I looked back to see Miss Turner holding out the yellow flowers I fetched.

"Don't forget these."

"You gave us the money back."

"And you gave me an interesting afternoon."

Her warm smile spurred me on and I took the flowers from her, bid her farewell and moved quickly to catch up to Carrie, who was stationed beside her car outside. Before I opened the door, Miss Turner called out.

"Careful, dear. Not all mammals are working to solve this issue, I'd take a bet some are willing to keep it as it is, whatever their reason."

I nodded erratically and closed the door behind me, stepping past the flowers and approaching Carrie.

"Don't tell me you stole those." She deadpanned after noticing me.

The strange uncertainty I felt dissipated in an instant. I snorted and shoved the flowers into her face. After she ceased sputtering and grabbed them from my grasp I spoke.  
"Actually, she gave them to me free of charge on account of my charm and wit."

"Or in the hopes it'll help you in the romance department. You're supposed to give them to a lady, not shove it in their face. No wonder you don't have a girlfriend."

I walked around the car and jumped in the passenger seat, smirking. She got in after me, a small smile present on her face too.

"Well they're yours now. Maybe you can use them to get a boyfriend."

"I should ask your sister if you were born a complete asshole."

I laughed loudly and heartily. She joined in soon after. It wasn't what she said that got me laughing, more the circumstance it was in and she explained why it was so humorous after the giggling died down.

"This is so absurd." She leaned her head back and huffed.

"Completely dumb." I agreed.

"I think we've bitten off more than we can chew."

"Bit early to say that, cruncher."

"I know… if I just knew how this ends, maybe I wouldn't be so apprehensive."

I looked her way.  
"We don't need to figure any of this out, we aren't cops."

"I'm here. I've dug around. I've blackmailed. I've borderlined interrogated-"

"Not so much borderlined."

"-if I leave now then what?"

"You pay me, go home and do whatever rabbits do."

"Simple," she whispered, "but I think I'm stuck here. I went ahead and made it my responsibility and- unsurprisingly- I'm responsible."

"You're really a hardass justice freak."

"And you're a criminal who can't bribe."

"…So you're gonna stick with this anyway."

"Let's see what Doug has to say."

Carrie leaned forward, stuck the keys in the ignition and turned. The car came to life and in seconds we were back on the road, heading for the Meadowlands. Both of us felt confused before and even more so after the talk with Miss Turner, Carrie seemingly conflicted now and I was still plain old scared. Scared anything I figure out now would be false and just as scared if it was truth. All we had to do was see how far this rabbit hole really went, if it was a rabbit hole at all.


End file.
